We said goodbye to Thailand on June 2. Our plane left a little after midnight. We are currently in Seoul, South Korea on a 10 hour lay over. (Thanks to "Samsung" Free Wi-Fi center and I am able to update this blog while waiting!)
I was super sad leaving Thailand. I didn't realized how much I actually loved this country! I looked out the plane window after take off and didn't stop looking until the lights from the city disapeared. I just kept reminding myself how blessed I am to have had such a great experience. God has taught and showed me so much during this time!
Our travles are going well so far...thank you for all the prayers! Korean Airline is amazing, and the people are so friendly. Last night before heading on the plane we got some snack money from our leader so Josh enjoyed some french fries from Burger King and I enjoyed some ice cream from Dairy Queen. One of my favorite things I have enjoyed and I think I am going to miss is small talking with Thai people. No one else was getting ice cream at the time I was ordering. There were about four girls working and they all kept smiling at me. So, my favorite thing to do is ask them questions in English because they love practicing English. We laughed and talked for about 5 min, I had so much fun! I did the same thing after security had to go through my carry on after I accidntly left my bug spray in my carry-on bag...oops. Josh just rolled his eyes and me, but I just laughed and blessed to know that God allowed me to enjoy my last few moments in the country interacting with the people.
We arrived in Seoul, Korea about 5:00am this morning and slept on the benches in the airport untill 10:30ish. Then Josh and I explored and walked around the airport. Ate some Subway for lunch...tasted so good!
Well, we are about to head to Seattle now...back to the States! Before you know it we will be home :)
See you soon!
-Danielle
Our shout out goes to Jared Harrington for graduating high school!
Friday, June 3, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
Mommy and Daddy?
If you are freaking out about the title right now...don't. I'll explain.
We are here in Buriram at Tree of Life Orphanage absolutely loving life. As Danielle indicated in our previous post, a lot of what we have been doing here is handywork. Painting, cleaning, moving sand, mowing, etc...like any house in America, the projects are endless and there is always something that needs to be done. I tell you what though, I'm going to borrow a saying of Eric Folkers here, our team has been working like a bunch of rented mules. Its been 90+ degrees and humid everyday and we have been working our tails off. I'm so proud of our team. Roger keeps saying that they made a list of things that needed to be done by the end of our three weeks here...we finished it in two. He and Phong, his wife, are so greatful and just can't thank us enough.
The kids are really opening up to us now too. They love to just color, play with the girls hair and just play in general. Here is where the mommy and daddy part comes in. There are two adorable little girls, Taan and Dtoy, who Danielle and I have fallen in love with. There favorite game to play is "mommy and daddy." Taan is especially grown attached to me and she melts my heart everyday. I even got the, "I love you." before bed last night. I melted. Its hugs and stories after school everyday now and it's really sad that we have to leave them in a couple of days. This past weekend was really fun with the kids here. Saturday night we had our own worship time together and then after we decided to teach them how to line dance. Phong was thrilled! She learned way back when she and Roger were first married and visited Texas and couldn't wait to do it again. She walked into the room with her cowboy hat and boots on ready to Texas two step. It was awesome. All of us had a great time line dancing and then we busted out Justin Bieber and the party really got started. It was an immediate hit and the kids loved it! We ended up dancing to anything and everything Sunday night again because they had such a fun time before. You can imagine with no AC that things get a little sweaty and hot but none of us care because its so much fun. I am dreading saying goodbye to all of them on Friday morning. It's going to be more difficult than I expected I think.
Nonetheless, the end is drawing near and we cannot believe it. I know we keep saying this over and over again but its completely true. We will be home before we know it!
Just want to give a shout out to ZEHS Track. Congrats on the success this year! Another bigger shout out to my little brother for his success in track and declaring his undying faith in Jesus Christ on Sunday. I am so proud.
Pray that Danielle and I find the energy to pour into the kids while we still can and that we have the strength to say goodbye. Its going to be a tough end to the week and we will need all the encouragement we can get.
God Bless you all!
Josh
We are here in Buriram at Tree of Life Orphanage absolutely loving life. As Danielle indicated in our previous post, a lot of what we have been doing here is handywork. Painting, cleaning, moving sand, mowing, etc...like any house in America, the projects are endless and there is always something that needs to be done. I tell you what though, I'm going to borrow a saying of Eric Folkers here, our team has been working like a bunch of rented mules. Its been 90+ degrees and humid everyday and we have been working our tails off. I'm so proud of our team. Roger keeps saying that they made a list of things that needed to be done by the end of our three weeks here...we finished it in two. He and Phong, his wife, are so greatful and just can't thank us enough.
The kids are really opening up to us now too. They love to just color, play with the girls hair and just play in general. Here is where the mommy and daddy part comes in. There are two adorable little girls, Taan and Dtoy, who Danielle and I have fallen in love with. There favorite game to play is "mommy and daddy." Taan is especially grown attached to me and she melts my heart everyday. I even got the, "I love you." before bed last night. I melted. Its hugs and stories after school everyday now and it's really sad that we have to leave them in a couple of days. This past weekend was really fun with the kids here. Saturday night we had our own worship time together and then after we decided to teach them how to line dance. Phong was thrilled! She learned way back when she and Roger were first married and visited Texas and couldn't wait to do it again. She walked into the room with her cowboy hat and boots on ready to Texas two step. It was awesome. All of us had a great time line dancing and then we busted out Justin Bieber and the party really got started. It was an immediate hit and the kids loved it! We ended up dancing to anything and everything Sunday night again because they had such a fun time before. You can imagine with no AC that things get a little sweaty and hot but none of us care because its so much fun. I am dreading saying goodbye to all of them on Friday morning. It's going to be more difficult than I expected I think.
Nonetheless, the end is drawing near and we cannot believe it. I know we keep saying this over and over again but its completely true. We will be home before we know it!
Just want to give a shout out to ZEHS Track. Congrats on the success this year! Another bigger shout out to my little brother for his success in track and declaring his undying faith in Jesus Christ on Sunday. I am so proud.
Pray that Danielle and I find the energy to pour into the kids while we still can and that we have the strength to say goodbye. Its going to be a tough end to the week and we will need all the encouragement we can get.
God Bless you all!
Josh
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Scorpian for dinner? Say What!
We made it safely to Buriram Friday morning after a long bus ride from Chiang Mai. Roger and Phongsri Walker are our new contacts and we are staying in their orphanage called The Tree of Life. Many of us expected there to be millions of little kids screaming but there are actually about 12 or so ranging from 3 years old to middle school. They all come from varying backgrounds and situations. These children have been abandoned as a result of prostitution, parental death to AIDS, financial difficulties, disabilities, and alcoholism. They are great kids and I am starting to fall more in love with them each day! They love to tickle and scare us. Once in awhile I gather the kids together and do a "sneak attack tickle Josh" and they love it, but I have the consequence of getting the "really Danielle, Thanks!" look from Josh...oh well :)
Saturday was my favorite day, others didn't enjoy it as much. Our duty for the day as to clean some parts of the house! Let's just say it really needed it! We worked all day cleaning only a few rooms, but it made a huge difference. Audriana and I worked on the library. We took books off the shelves, dusted and deep cleaned. Josh referes to my cleaning as "she thinks of places no one else things of cleaning...and she could do this for days". Well in order for me to do a good clean, I wanted to pull out the shelves and find the "treasures" behind and under them. A few girls came and helped me move one shelf. As we lifted we saw a scorpian! At first we were not sure if it was just a toy, but after we poked it, it ran off. We told Phongsri and her face lit up with excitement! She said she wanted to catch this thing so she can cook it and eat it! So, we caught it and caught one more. They are currently alive in a bucket with no cover waiting to be cooked! YIKES!
Buriram is about two hours from Cambodia. Lots of mosquitoes, insects, and squaty potties, and cold showers with no air conditioned rooms. On the other hand, we are blessed to have a washer! Josh was so excited to not have to wash his clothes by hand today. Rogers wife cooks wonderful Thai food for us as well and we are all able to have a family style dinner together each night which is something we haven't done as a team since Masot.
We attended the Thai church this morning. We walked in and everyone watched us as we walked to the front. I had a wonderful time praising God and worshipping him even though I didn't understand what the Thai's were saying. The Thai people were so passionate and praising God is made me want to cry...seriously it was really awesome!
This week I think we will be up to more "Danielle projects". More cleaning, painting, and yard work. At first I got really down because people think I am crazy for loving it, but I realized this is one of the gifts God has given me. Seeing the smiles on Roger and Phongsri faces as they saw all the hard work everyone did makes all the hard work worth it!
I can't believe we only have a few weeks left! It get's harder each day to think about our time here is almost done. I am super sad and don't want to leave. Please pray that we keep pressing into these kiddos and this city!
Love you all and thank you for the continued support. Also, I think Rachael is almost finished with our 3rd video update...so get excited :)
Saturday was my favorite day, others didn't enjoy it as much. Our duty for the day as to clean some parts of the house! Let's just say it really needed it! We worked all day cleaning only a few rooms, but it made a huge difference. Audriana and I worked on the library. We took books off the shelves, dusted and deep cleaned. Josh referes to my cleaning as "she thinks of places no one else things of cleaning...and she could do this for days". Well in order for me to do a good clean, I wanted to pull out the shelves and find the "treasures" behind and under them. A few girls came and helped me move one shelf. As we lifted we saw a scorpian! At first we were not sure if it was just a toy, but after we poked it, it ran off. We told Phongsri and her face lit up with excitement! She said she wanted to catch this thing so she can cook it and eat it! So, we caught it and caught one more. They are currently alive in a bucket with no cover waiting to be cooked! YIKES!
Buriram is about two hours from Cambodia. Lots of mosquitoes, insects, and squaty potties, and cold showers with no air conditioned rooms. On the other hand, we are blessed to have a washer! Josh was so excited to not have to wash his clothes by hand today. Rogers wife cooks wonderful Thai food for us as well and we are all able to have a family style dinner together each night which is something we haven't done as a team since Masot.
We attended the Thai church this morning. We walked in and everyone watched us as we walked to the front. I had a wonderful time praising God and worshipping him even though I didn't understand what the Thai's were saying. The Thai people were so passionate and praising God is made me want to cry...seriously it was really awesome!
This week I think we will be up to more "Danielle projects". More cleaning, painting, and yard work. At first I got really down because people think I am crazy for loving it, but I realized this is one of the gifts God has given me. Seeing the smiles on Roger and Phongsri faces as they saw all the hard work everyone did makes all the hard work worth it!
I can't believe we only have a few weeks left! It get's harder each day to think about our time here is almost done. I am super sad and don't want to leave. Please pray that we keep pressing into these kiddos and this city!
Love you all and thank you for the continued support. Also, I think Rachael is almost finished with our 3rd video update...so get excited :)
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
From college students and bars to orphans
The time has come for us to say goodbye to Chiang Mai. Our time here is has been so much fun and we will certainly miss it but we look forward to our experiences at the orphanage in Buriram. We hop on a bus for our 14 hour journey through Thailand on Wednesday so there are a lot of memories from this past week since we had to live it up one final time in Chiang Mai.
We had our normal schedule again this week: teaching classes and then hanging out with students after. We also had some additional ministry opportunities this week but first, our classes. Its been so fun connecting and teaching these students. They have really opened up to us and just become our friends. Annie and I finally were able to go out to dinner with some our students and it was so much fun. We just sat and talked like any other friends in the world would do. They make fun of us, laugh at us, and just ask us questions now. It makes class really fun. Yesterday was tough. A lot of us were thinking it would be our last day to teach so we wanted to do something special for them. Annie and I were going to play Apples to Apples and have junk food. Around 3pm it started to rain, hard. Unfortunately our class starts at 4pm and because of the torrential downpour the students didn't show. I was so upset. A lot of the class were a no-show as well. Fortunately, I found out today that we are teaching on Monday and Tuesday! Yay! I would have been very upset if I didn't have a chance to say goodbye. I am looking forward to hanging out with them again but at the same time I don't want to have to say goodbye.
On Monday and Wednesday night of last week we did red light ministry. All the other times we have gone I have felt like that I was not supposed to go into the district but just stay back and pray for the group. On Monday this finally got to me. Hearing all of their stories made me jealous to be frank. So, Wednesday I finally got the feeling that I was supposed to go in. A little nerve racking and exciting was what I was feeling but I knew I was supposed to go in. So I hooked up with another guy from Norway and we headed out. To say I was overwhelmed at first is an understatement. It was just so much to take in. So many emotions going on inside of me: anger, sadness, longing to tell them there's more. We ended up going into two different bars. One of which I got into a good conversation with a U.S. Marshal who is stationed in Saipan. We talked about his job, his 13 year old son who lives with him and he had a lot of questions about what I was doing and what organization I was doing it through. We played pool with him and three other guys from Europe and just had a good time. Hearing his story, I could get a sense of the loneliness and brokenness he was carrying and only wished he knew that these girls weren't the answer. I had a small victory in God later in the night. As we were gathering as a group to head back to our meeting spot, I saw him walking back to his hotel, alone. It made me smile a little and wondered what God had done during our conversation about just life. There is so much more to tell about this story and other from that time down there that I'll have to tell when I get back. I'll just leave it with the awe at how much despair and loneliness there is on that street and in those bars. There is no possible way to win down there. The girls attach to a guy and feel loved until he leaves and then they are heart broken, lose. Or they don't get a guy and they think they are ugly, lose. The guys get a girl and think they are macho and loved until they realize they are paying for it and she will just go back to the bar later and find another guy, lose. It seems like a hopeless situation, a perfect place for us as Christians to be, a perfect place for God to be. Just this past Monday we went into the red light district one last time. I decided that my place was back praying again so I don't have too many stories. When I was praying though, I was overwhelmed with this sense of hope, joy, and confidence that God will change the hearts of the girls in the bars that our girls made relationships with. Our debrief time was somber and sad. Many of our girls had developed a friendship with the girls down there and were broken to leave them in that situation any longer. God gave me some words for the team that were powerful to me and I hope the rest of the team: "The pain of goodbye means you have done well. It means you have loved, truly and deeply loved, the 'unloveable.' So well done, good and faithful servants." Isn't that what our lives are supposed to model everyday? I think our girls did an amazing job just loving those girls and I'm honored to be on DTS outreach with every single one of them.
Tuesday was our last opportunity to teach our students English. It was a sad day realizing we don't have any more time left with these students. Of course we didn't teach. Annie and I decided to just teach them by eating junk food and playing Apples to Apples! It was really fun and I think they enjoyed it too. Its so sad to know that we won't be able to hang out with them everyday anymore. They were awesome and I will truly miss all of them. We didn't have anyone get saved but its up to God now and the people he puts in the rest of their lives to disciple and lead them to Christ.
Its hard to tell everything from our week because its always filled with so many stories. Here are some highlights from this past week though:
- Playing Phase 10 with people at the Centre and just laughing because Rachael and Scott (he is from the Australia team) are stuck on phase 1 while the rest of us are on phase 6 or 7.
- Being able to go out to dinner with two of our students, Pan and Mao, and introducing them to the Hong Kong Waffle. Delicious!
- Getting to know the Australia DTS team. We will miss them.
- Visiting the Chiang Mai Zoo Saturday
- Celebrating Rachael's birthday at The Pizza Company and seeing a movie
- Playing Apples to Apples with our students and saying goodbye
- And last but certainly not least...Celebrating 3 years with Danielle Veltema on May 6th! I love her...
Like I said before we cannot believe the end is near and are sad to see it go by so fast. Yet, we miss home and cannot wait to share all that we have learned over this whole adventure. We will see you all soon and tell you all that we can remember.
God bless you all!
Josh
We had our normal schedule again this week: teaching classes and then hanging out with students after. We also had some additional ministry opportunities this week but first, our classes. Its been so fun connecting and teaching these students. They have really opened up to us and just become our friends. Annie and I finally were able to go out to dinner with some our students and it was so much fun. We just sat and talked like any other friends in the world would do. They make fun of us, laugh at us, and just ask us questions now. It makes class really fun. Yesterday was tough. A lot of us were thinking it would be our last day to teach so we wanted to do something special for them. Annie and I were going to play Apples to Apples and have junk food. Around 3pm it started to rain, hard. Unfortunately our class starts at 4pm and because of the torrential downpour the students didn't show. I was so upset. A lot of the class were a no-show as well. Fortunately, I found out today that we are teaching on Monday and Tuesday! Yay! I would have been very upset if I didn't have a chance to say goodbye. I am looking forward to hanging out with them again but at the same time I don't want to have to say goodbye.
On Monday and Wednesday night of last week we did red light ministry. All the other times we have gone I have felt like that I was not supposed to go into the district but just stay back and pray for the group. On Monday this finally got to me. Hearing all of their stories made me jealous to be frank. So, Wednesday I finally got the feeling that I was supposed to go in. A little nerve racking and exciting was what I was feeling but I knew I was supposed to go in. So I hooked up with another guy from Norway and we headed out. To say I was overwhelmed at first is an understatement. It was just so much to take in. So many emotions going on inside of me: anger, sadness, longing to tell them there's more. We ended up going into two different bars. One of which I got into a good conversation with a U.S. Marshal who is stationed in Saipan. We talked about his job, his 13 year old son who lives with him and he had a lot of questions about what I was doing and what organization I was doing it through. We played pool with him and three other guys from Europe and just had a good time. Hearing his story, I could get a sense of the loneliness and brokenness he was carrying and only wished he knew that these girls weren't the answer. I had a small victory in God later in the night. As we were gathering as a group to head back to our meeting spot, I saw him walking back to his hotel, alone. It made me smile a little and wondered what God had done during our conversation about just life. There is so much more to tell about this story and other from that time down there that I'll have to tell when I get back. I'll just leave it with the awe at how much despair and loneliness there is on that street and in those bars. There is no possible way to win down there. The girls attach to a guy and feel loved until he leaves and then they are heart broken, lose. Or they don't get a guy and they think they are ugly, lose. The guys get a girl and think they are macho and loved until they realize they are paying for it and she will just go back to the bar later and find another guy, lose. It seems like a hopeless situation, a perfect place for us as Christians to be, a perfect place for God to be. Just this past Monday we went into the red light district one last time. I decided that my place was back praying again so I don't have too many stories. When I was praying though, I was overwhelmed with this sense of hope, joy, and confidence that God will change the hearts of the girls in the bars that our girls made relationships with. Our debrief time was somber and sad. Many of our girls had developed a friendship with the girls down there and were broken to leave them in that situation any longer. God gave me some words for the team that were powerful to me and I hope the rest of the team: "The pain of goodbye means you have done well. It means you have loved, truly and deeply loved, the 'unloveable.' So well done, good and faithful servants." Isn't that what our lives are supposed to model everyday? I think our girls did an amazing job just loving those girls and I'm honored to be on DTS outreach with every single one of them.
Tuesday was our last opportunity to teach our students English. It was a sad day realizing we don't have any more time left with these students. Of course we didn't teach. Annie and I decided to just teach them by eating junk food and playing Apples to Apples! It was really fun and I think they enjoyed it too. Its so sad to know that we won't be able to hang out with them everyday anymore. They were awesome and I will truly miss all of them. We didn't have anyone get saved but its up to God now and the people he puts in the rest of their lives to disciple and lead them to Christ.
Its hard to tell everything from our week because its always filled with so many stories. Here are some highlights from this past week though:
- Playing Phase 10 with people at the Centre and just laughing because Rachael and Scott (he is from the Australia team) are stuck on phase 1 while the rest of us are on phase 6 or 7.
- Being able to go out to dinner with two of our students, Pan and Mao, and introducing them to the Hong Kong Waffle. Delicious!
- Getting to know the Australia DTS team. We will miss them.
- Visiting the Chiang Mai Zoo Saturday
- Celebrating Rachael's birthday at The Pizza Company and seeing a movie
- Playing Apples to Apples with our students and saying goodbye
- And last but certainly not least...Celebrating 3 years with Danielle Veltema on May 6th! I love her...
Like I said before we cannot believe the end is near and are sad to see it go by so fast. Yet, we miss home and cannot wait to share all that we have learned over this whole adventure. We will see you all soon and tell you all that we can remember.
God bless you all!
Josh
Sunday, May 1, 2011
I may or may not have a Thai accent when I return....
Over the past week we have started the relation based evangelism in Chiang Mai. Josh and I both started teaching English classes. We paired up with someone else on our team, and we have about three students each. Before and after classes we hang out at The Centre playing games and talking with the students. We hosted a cooking night on Tuesday. We made pasta with different sauces. Friday night we hosted a Mario Party game night and continued to create relationships with the students. This week I was able to go out for dinner with two students First and Bye. It felt so normal and comfortable, like hanging out with friends from home. As we drove to the restaurant I describe things in English on the way. I started noticing that I constantly think/talk like Thai people. After dinner they took me to Swenson's, my dream restaurant! It was an ice cream restaurant in the mall. You sit down and on the menu is ice cream, ice cream and more ice cream! We had nine scoops of different flavored ice cream and a chocolate fondue pot with fruits. (Thailand style scoops..so small. All the scoops together were like the size of the Village Dippers small.) It was great hanging out with First and Bye and being able to have normal conversations and creating a better friendship.
We were able to go out two times this week to the red light district. Josh and a few others stayed back at the guest house and prayed for the rest of the team that went out. Praying is just as much or even more of a part of this ministry than going into the red light district. The first time we walked through the streets we were lead by two other YWAMers, Amanda and Sam, that have been doing this ministry over the past few weeks. We first walked up and down the streets soaking it all in, and also sat down at a bar to observe. I saw the women lined up on the street and sitting at the bars while shining with glitter and glamor. I also took notice of the men ranging of all ages, even some with rings on their fingers. We also had two kids Baan and Oht come to us and asked us to buy flowers. Amanda and Sam have been hanging out with them during their time at the bars. They told us that the kids have to sell all their flowers by the end of the night if they want to eat or sleep. If a someone buys their whole stack of flowers, their Trafficker notices and gives them more flowers to sell making the cycle never ending. I saw the children faces light up as we just loved on them, played thumb wars, checkers, and rock paper scissors. The kids are really good at these games because they play them in order to get more money. It's heartbreaking to realize these children will never experience a normal childhood. At first I felt really angry at the men, traffickers and pimps and didn't understand why anyone hasn't stopped this yet. I saw brokenness, hurt and shame. I prayed to God to not let me be judgmental and let me walk and be a friend among them just as Jesus would. I started to look at it from both sides. Many of the people come here because of a deeper problem. I wonder why anyone would want to hurt Gods beautiful woman and children? I realize though that many of the men are lost and hurt themselves. The second night, me and another girl from my team went and actually talked to many prostitutes, lady boys, and played with the kids again trying to create relationships. We sat down at a few bars and just listened to peoples stories and just loved on them and had fun. I have so many stories to share and I wish I could tell you so much more! I can't wait for this week to go back into the bars and follow up on the relationships I have created!
This week we are doing the same thing. Team time in the morning, English classes starting at about 4:00pm at the Centre and red light ministry starting 9:00pm till about 2:00 in the morning. We also work with smaller ministries as well to fill some time. Last week was such a good week, please pray that this week is even better!
Okay, so there's also the downtime we have with the team. I love to go exploring and trying new things. The other night on our walk we decided to check out the McDonald's that's down the street from us. On the menu they had a "Broccoli, Corn or Pineapple Pie". In America the last time I checked we had apple and cherry. I am not a big fan of McDonald's as some of you may know, but I was very curious about this broccoli pie. So, I decided to get one and have the team take a bite. It tasted like cheese broccoli soup stuffed in a spring roll. I was wondering if it has been placed on the menu yet in the states...and if so, please don't get it!
Anyways, it's over half way through outreach and we have many stories to share. Don't worry though, we will be home before you know it and we will be able to explain more, tell you more, and most importantly tell you how amazing and great our God is and what he has been doing in our life!
We miss you and love you all, and thank you for your continued prayers.
Our shout out for the week goes to all the college students...you have finished another year! Also, congrats to Josh Knap on receiving your masters! Woot woot!
Also make sure to check out Salem's blog post, www.ywamsalem.org/outreach-blog, because Josh updated it this week for our team.
-Danielle
We were able to go out two times this week to the red light district. Josh and a few others stayed back at the guest house and prayed for the rest of the team that went out. Praying is just as much or even more of a part of this ministry than going into the red light district. The first time we walked through the streets we were lead by two other YWAMers, Amanda and Sam, that have been doing this ministry over the past few weeks. We first walked up and down the streets soaking it all in, and also sat down at a bar to observe. I saw the women lined up on the street and sitting at the bars while shining with glitter and glamor. I also took notice of the men ranging of all ages, even some with rings on their fingers. We also had two kids Baan and Oht come to us and asked us to buy flowers. Amanda and Sam have been hanging out with them during their time at the bars. They told us that the kids have to sell all their flowers by the end of the night if they want to eat or sleep. If a someone buys their whole stack of flowers, their Trafficker notices and gives them more flowers to sell making the cycle never ending. I saw the children faces light up as we just loved on them, played thumb wars, checkers, and rock paper scissors. The kids are really good at these games because they play them in order to get more money. It's heartbreaking to realize these children will never experience a normal childhood. At first I felt really angry at the men, traffickers and pimps and didn't understand why anyone hasn't stopped this yet. I saw brokenness, hurt and shame. I prayed to God to not let me be judgmental and let me walk and be a friend among them just as Jesus would. I started to look at it from both sides. Many of the people come here because of a deeper problem. I wonder why anyone would want to hurt Gods beautiful woman and children? I realize though that many of the men are lost and hurt themselves. The second night, me and another girl from my team went and actually talked to many prostitutes, lady boys, and played with the kids again trying to create relationships. We sat down at a few bars and just listened to peoples stories and just loved on them and had fun. I have so many stories to share and I wish I could tell you so much more! I can't wait for this week to go back into the bars and follow up on the relationships I have created!
This week we are doing the same thing. Team time in the morning, English classes starting at about 4:00pm at the Centre and red light ministry starting 9:00pm till about 2:00 in the morning. We also work with smaller ministries as well to fill some time. Last week was such a good week, please pray that this week is even better!
Okay, so there's also the downtime we have with the team. I love to go exploring and trying new things. The other night on our walk we decided to check out the McDonald's that's down the street from us. On the menu they had a "Broccoli, Corn or Pineapple Pie". In America the last time I checked we had apple and cherry. I am not a big fan of McDonald's as some of you may know, but I was very curious about this broccoli pie. So, I decided to get one and have the team take a bite. It tasted like cheese broccoli soup stuffed in a spring roll. I was wondering if it has been placed on the menu yet in the states...and if so, please don't get it!
Anyways, it's over half way through outreach and we have many stories to share. Don't worry though, we will be home before you know it and we will be able to explain more, tell you more, and most importantly tell you how amazing and great our God is and what he has been doing in our life!
We miss you and love you all, and thank you for your continued prayers.
Our shout out for the week goes to all the college students...you have finished another year! Also, congrats to Josh Knap on receiving your masters! Woot woot!
Also make sure to check out Salem's blog post, www.ywamsalem.org/outreach-blog, because Josh updated it this week for our team.
-Danielle
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Chiang Mai to the fullest!
First off let me just tell you that Songkran festival is one of the greatest events in all of the world. Rivals with the Olympics...it has to. Where else in the world would you be able to throw ice cold water on complete strangers and not have thousands of fist fights break out? Not in the U.S. that's for sure. It was such a blast. I will have to admit that I was very hesitant at first and didn't really feel like getting wet but once it happens you just roll with the punches. Unfortunately, some of the water was nasty moat water that has been festering with bacteria for months. Great! One of our girls actually got sick because of such water. Needless to say we scrubbed like never before in the showers and washed our clothes (by hand!!) multiple times.
The bad part about Songkran is that it is a national holiday so literally everything shuts down. Restaurants, shops, everything is closed! It was so hard to just find some place good to eat. This also highly affected our ministry as well. Since its such a big festival the universities that the students we would work with also shut down for the week. This means the place we are going to teach English, The Centre, is also shut down. No students means no class which means no relationship ministry. We were bummed but we kept busy. We had plenty of work projects around the place to help with. Danielle and I got to pick out and plant flowers in their flower boxes as well as clean practically the whole place. Some of our girls were tasked with picking a room and then painting it according to whatever theme they desired. They decided to paint a water landscape with a castle that had hundreds of lanterns floating from it in the sky. If you have seen the movie "Tangled" just picture the scene with the lanterns...thats the look they were going for. It took four days and a lot of paint but it turned out amazing! I wish I was able to upload some pictures of it so you could see it.
As for teaching English, we haven't even started yet. We just arrived at a bad time to be frank. With the holiday and summer classes just starting at the universities students are hard to come by. This week has been adventurous still and we have seen more and more people coming in to sign up for classes. Next week there should be about 6-8 classes compared to the 2 that we started with this week. We are all excited and can't wait. In the mean time we are keeping busy around The Centre by passing out flyers and coming up with fun nights for the students to just draw more in and establish the relationships we are seeking. Tuesday night we are having a Pasta Night and then Friday we are planning a Mario Kart Party! Today was interesting as well. We got to go and visit Doi Suthep Temple. It is one of the holiest temples in all of Thailand and actually arguably the most holy. It is said to contain a bone of Buddha in its pagoda. We went to observe their worship rituals and to pray over the city (the temple is on top of a mountain looking over the entire city of Chiang Mai). Rob, the director of The Centre, really wanted us to closely observe the acts of worship and try to find similarities in our practices and theirs. Finding that connection is highly crucial because the mindset here in Thailand is "If you are Thai then you are Buddhist." So, by maintaining their cultural practices but turning it towards God is a goal for many missionaries here in Thailand so the Thai Christians can still hold onto their Thai culture and not be completely westernized. Just walking around that temple seeing the people worshiping useless artifacts and paying money to lifeless causes made me quite angry. I just wanted to scream out to them that they don't need to be paying all this money and time trying to gain salvation...it has already been paid in full! And then to see foreigners blindly participating in these rituals just made me furious. They have no idea what they are doing and the significance of their actions. Everything inside of me was just turning and I felt like I was going to burst out in anger and cry at the same time. But God is greater and He will overcome all of it.
One more side note. Sorry for the randomness of this post. There is just so much to catch up on. Amy, the school leader for our DTS, made a pastoral visit this past week to just see how things are doing. It was great to have her here. She really enjoyed her time here and we enjoyed her even more I think. Tuesday was her last day so for dinner we went out as a team and splurged. We went to get western food! Very special because it usually is too expensive. We ended up going to Sizzler which is just a steakhouse type restaurant. We each got an entree and then they have a salad/soup/pasta/dessert buffet that comes along with any entree purchase. We must have looked like we haven't seen food for the past month the way we attacked that buffet. I have never felt so full in my life but it was SO good. Not to say that Thai food isn't delicious but rice does get old after awhile. It was just a good treat and change of pace. After gorging ourselves on 'western' food we went to karaoke! I guess karaoke is a huge thing here in Thailand and everywhere you turn there is a karaoke bar. The place we went was set up where you rent an entire private room for either 1 or 2 hours. It was so much fun! Definitely something we will do in the future.
Next week we will begin the relation based evangelism we were seeking in Chiang Mai. Pray for patience for our team. Thai people are unique in that they are discipled first and then they accept Christ so it can be a long process. Pray that we understand this concept and just love on the students fully knowing that we might not even get the chance to bring them to Christ.
For those of you worried about Danielle's health: She is fine. She just has random tummy aches every so often. Danielle is not one to be tied down or to miss out on an adventure so pray that these aches don't interfere with any ministry opportunities.
We miss you all! I want to give a special shout out to the Vriesland middle school group! Danielle and I love you all and miss you dearly. Keep pressing into God and seek him first!
Josh
The bad part about Songkran is that it is a national holiday so literally everything shuts down. Restaurants, shops, everything is closed! It was so hard to just find some place good to eat. This also highly affected our ministry as well. Since its such a big festival the universities that the students we would work with also shut down for the week. This means the place we are going to teach English, The Centre, is also shut down. No students means no class which means no relationship ministry. We were bummed but we kept busy. We had plenty of work projects around the place to help with. Danielle and I got to pick out and plant flowers in their flower boxes as well as clean practically the whole place. Some of our girls were tasked with picking a room and then painting it according to whatever theme they desired. They decided to paint a water landscape with a castle that had hundreds of lanterns floating from it in the sky. If you have seen the movie "Tangled" just picture the scene with the lanterns...thats the look they were going for. It took four days and a lot of paint but it turned out amazing! I wish I was able to upload some pictures of it so you could see it.
As for teaching English, we haven't even started yet. We just arrived at a bad time to be frank. With the holiday and summer classes just starting at the universities students are hard to come by. This week has been adventurous still and we have seen more and more people coming in to sign up for classes. Next week there should be about 6-8 classes compared to the 2 that we started with this week. We are all excited and can't wait. In the mean time we are keeping busy around The Centre by passing out flyers and coming up with fun nights for the students to just draw more in and establish the relationships we are seeking. Tuesday night we are having a Pasta Night and then Friday we are planning a Mario Kart Party! Today was interesting as well. We got to go and visit Doi Suthep Temple. It is one of the holiest temples in all of Thailand and actually arguably the most holy. It is said to contain a bone of Buddha in its pagoda. We went to observe their worship rituals and to pray over the city (the temple is on top of a mountain looking over the entire city of Chiang Mai). Rob, the director of The Centre, really wanted us to closely observe the acts of worship and try to find similarities in our practices and theirs. Finding that connection is highly crucial because the mindset here in Thailand is "If you are Thai then you are Buddhist." So, by maintaining their cultural practices but turning it towards God is a goal for many missionaries here in Thailand so the Thai Christians can still hold onto their Thai culture and not be completely westernized. Just walking around that temple seeing the people worshiping useless artifacts and paying money to lifeless causes made me quite angry. I just wanted to scream out to them that they don't need to be paying all this money and time trying to gain salvation...it has already been paid in full! And then to see foreigners blindly participating in these rituals just made me furious. They have no idea what they are doing and the significance of their actions. Everything inside of me was just turning and I felt like I was going to burst out in anger and cry at the same time. But God is greater and He will overcome all of it.
One more side note. Sorry for the randomness of this post. There is just so much to catch up on. Amy, the school leader for our DTS, made a pastoral visit this past week to just see how things are doing. It was great to have her here. She really enjoyed her time here and we enjoyed her even more I think. Tuesday was her last day so for dinner we went out as a team and splurged. We went to get western food! Very special because it usually is too expensive. We ended up going to Sizzler which is just a steakhouse type restaurant. We each got an entree and then they have a salad/soup/pasta/dessert buffet that comes along with any entree purchase. We must have looked like we haven't seen food for the past month the way we attacked that buffet. I have never felt so full in my life but it was SO good. Not to say that Thai food isn't delicious but rice does get old after awhile. It was just a good treat and change of pace. After gorging ourselves on 'western' food we went to karaoke! I guess karaoke is a huge thing here in Thailand and everywhere you turn there is a karaoke bar. The place we went was set up where you rent an entire private room for either 1 or 2 hours. It was so much fun! Definitely something we will do in the future.
Next week we will begin the relation based evangelism we were seeking in Chiang Mai. Pray for patience for our team. Thai people are unique in that they are discipled first and then they accept Christ so it can be a long process. Pray that we understand this concept and just love on the students fully knowing that we might not even get the chance to bring them to Christ.
For those of you worried about Danielle's health: She is fine. She just has random tummy aches every so often. Danielle is not one to be tied down or to miss out on an adventure so pray that these aches don't interfere with any ministry opportunities.
We miss you all! I want to give a special shout out to the Vriesland middle school group! Danielle and I love you all and miss you dearly. Keep pressing into God and seek him first!
Josh
Monday, April 11, 2011
This week I felt like Jane from Tarzan!
Hello Everyone! We left Mae Sot on Sunday and now we are in Chiang Mai. Last night was our first night here and I had a little bit of culture shock. First off, for those of you that don't know, Chiang Mai is a tourist and university town. We will be teaching English, working in the red light district, and other possible ministries. This week, because the university is closed, we are doing work projects around the English center. I am the leader of the garden/landscape team! I am so excited to design and buy plants for a small area at the university. We are currently staying in a guest house which is sort of like a hotel. It was strange having the toilet, shower and sink all in the same room...and a HOT shower! I forgot how much I appreciate them especially all together in one room. We went to the food market for supper. The streets close down, and then there are basically lots of venders and food stands. It was so weird seeing other white people! Thailand's water festival starts on Wednesday and it could last for about a week. During this time everyone in the country throws water and baby powder on everyone, and everywhere! Everyone is buying squirt guns and many stores and the university shut down for the festival. As "white tourist" we are targeted the most! (I'm sure in the next blog post we will tell you how this went)
Last week was amazing. God is so good! I learned with different experiences that if we are faithful, he will bless us. On Monday we headed to a Burmese village but the guards didn't let us in that day, so instead we ended up heading to a village and then going to a cave in the jungle! It was beautiful, and I felt like Jane off of Tarzan! I even tried swinging from a vine. Well okay, it was only a few feet off the ground but still. :) On Tuesday we went to the local jail and sang songs, spoke, and even taught them how to line dance. We also went to a clinic that night and prayed for people. On Wednesday we headed to a village up in the mountains, probably my favorite thing we have done so far. It took about 7 hours or so to travel up to the village. It was literally in the jungle up in the mountains! Now I really felt like a jungle girl! I could go on forever about this trip! To make it easy I will list a few things and then you can ask us to fill it in when we come back.
1. 2 off road pickup trucks that had 20 or so people and their luggage. Josh and I ended up in the back of the pickup...let’s just say we learned how to ride like the Thai people.
2. No showers = showering in the river
3. Houses were wood, bathrooms outside, no sinks
4. The animals were treated like people in the town, chickens, pigs, cows would walk everywhere! The lived under the houses and outside my window was the home of a huge pig!
5. Food = rice, and...some other stuff
6. I fell in love with the people, and they are amazing! Rarely anyone goes up there because it is so far away. We blessed them and they blessed us!
We had a wonderful time with Pastor Michael over the past two weeks, and I was sad to leave after just starting to create a better relationship with him and other people in the town. I am excited for Chiang Mai though. We will be here for a month and be able to have more time to create good relationships with the students at the university.
I want to thank you for all your prayers and encouragement. It means a lot to hear and know that people are thinking about us, and it helps us to stay strong and continue on. Below are some prayer requests.
1.Safety during the water festival. Our leaders told us today that they heard there are more deaths this week in Thailand than there are in 1 year in Australia. This is because of water splashing on cars, drunks in the streets...etc.
2.Staying healthy. I got sick one day (because I ate something I was not suppose to…oops, that’s what happens when I become adventurous) and Josh has been having stomach problems. Nothing major, but still prayers are helpful.
3. That we dig into building relationships with the students that we will be teaching.
Thanks everyone, miss you all. We are starting to miss American food! So as you eat dinner tonight, be glad for the food you are eating...hopefully it's not rice :)
-Danielle
Last week was amazing. God is so good! I learned with different experiences that if we are faithful, he will bless us. On Monday we headed to a Burmese village but the guards didn't let us in that day, so instead we ended up heading to a village and then going to a cave in the jungle! It was beautiful, and I felt like Jane off of Tarzan! I even tried swinging from a vine. Well okay, it was only a few feet off the ground but still. :) On Tuesday we went to the local jail and sang songs, spoke, and even taught them how to line dance. We also went to a clinic that night and prayed for people. On Wednesday we headed to a village up in the mountains, probably my favorite thing we have done so far. It took about 7 hours or so to travel up to the village. It was literally in the jungle up in the mountains! Now I really felt like a jungle girl! I could go on forever about this trip! To make it easy I will list a few things and then you can ask us to fill it in when we come back.
1. 2 off road pickup trucks that had 20 or so people and their luggage. Josh and I ended up in the back of the pickup...let’s just say we learned how to ride like the Thai people.
2. No showers = showering in the river
3. Houses were wood, bathrooms outside, no sinks
4. The animals were treated like people in the town, chickens, pigs, cows would walk everywhere! The lived under the houses and outside my window was the home of a huge pig!
5. Food = rice, and...some other stuff
6. I fell in love with the people, and they are amazing! Rarely anyone goes up there because it is so far away. We blessed them and they blessed us!
We had a wonderful time with Pastor Michael over the past two weeks, and I was sad to leave after just starting to create a better relationship with him and other people in the town. I am excited for Chiang Mai though. We will be here for a month and be able to have more time to create good relationships with the students at the university.
I want to thank you for all your prayers and encouragement. It means a lot to hear and know that people are thinking about us, and it helps us to stay strong and continue on. Below are some prayer requests.
1.Safety during the water festival. Our leaders told us today that they heard there are more deaths this week in Thailand than there are in 1 year in Australia. This is because of water splashing on cars, drunks in the streets...etc.
2.Staying healthy. I got sick one day (because I ate something I was not suppose to…oops, that’s what happens when I become adventurous) and Josh has been having stomach problems. Nothing major, but still prayers are helpful.
3. That we dig into building relationships with the students that we will be teaching.
Thanks everyone, miss you all. We are starting to miss American food! So as you eat dinner tonight, be glad for the food you are eating...hopefully it's not rice :)
-Danielle
Sunday, April 3, 2011
First Week in Thailand
Sawatdee Khap! (Hello in Thai)
Here we are already, done with the first week of ministry here in Thailand. It has been a whirlwind of activity followed by periods of needed down time. What can I say....it has just been different and amazing. The weather actually started out cool. People kept telling us that it was really unusual weather. It has now started to heat up to around 95 every day. When it comes to ministry stuff I think you all should just watch this....
http://www.ywamsalem.org/outreach-blog/
Pretty sweet huh?
So pretty much it has been a lot of street preaching to various people. Currently we are in Mae Sot which is located in the North West portion of Thailand. It is right on the border with Myanmar (Burma). Actually, in the video, when we are dancing to Justin Bieber we are right on the river that divides Thailand and Myanmar...we could see Myanmar. Our contact here is Pastor Michael. He works a lot with Burmese refugees and brings us along as well. We have done numerous 'open airs' or street preachings, visited an orphanage, visited a school that is located in a dump, ran a youth camp. The stories are endless and I could go on forever. The one story I want to tell took place in the dump.
It is the city dump. Sadly, many of the refugees call that place home and spend their days looking for things to recycle and get some money for throughout he piles of garbage. Pastor Michael has been working with these people for some time now and has built the children their a school. We were privileged to visit the school and just hang out with the children. We played games, performed skits, sang songs...just loved on them. It was so cool to see them just be able to be kids because frankly, their situation forced them to grow up way too fast. You had 8 year olds raising their infant siblings, like a mother/father would. Whenever a new load of trash would drive by, boys would scatter and start chasing it to get first pickings at the new stuff. It was heartbreaking. They are children, they shouldn't have to be concerned with such things. Its just frustrating, especially since they fled from a horrible situation in Myanmar and now are living in squalor and the government does nothing for them. On a much much much more positive note, at the school our group ended up doing our little open air set (including Bieber) on a whim. About 18 kids decided to give their lives to Christ! It was so awesome to see them all huddled together with their hands up in the air praying out to our God!
Friday we started a 'youth camp' of sorts for some kids at a Burmese school. They are really cool kids and we all really connected with them. We taught them games and just ran a VBS of sorts. Our focus was getting them to really take their faith out into their communities. Currently its Sunday afternoon and we just finished the camp and just have some down time. Next week is going to be filled with many more opportunities. We are doing jail ministry, going into a village, possibly the refugee camp, a clinic and many many more open airs. We leave Sunday, April 10 for Chiang Mai (further north).
Miss all of you guys and wish the best on Spring Break! Your prayers do much more than you could imagine over here. Thank you!
Josh
Here we are already, done with the first week of ministry here in Thailand. It has been a whirlwind of activity followed by periods of needed down time. What can I say....it has just been different and amazing. The weather actually started out cool. People kept telling us that it was really unusual weather. It has now started to heat up to around 95 every day. When it comes to ministry stuff I think you all should just watch this....
http://www.ywamsalem.org/outreach-blog/
Pretty sweet huh?
So pretty much it has been a lot of street preaching to various people. Currently we are in Mae Sot which is located in the North West portion of Thailand. It is right on the border with Myanmar (Burma). Actually, in the video, when we are dancing to Justin Bieber we are right on the river that divides Thailand and Myanmar...we could see Myanmar. Our contact here is Pastor Michael. He works a lot with Burmese refugees and brings us along as well. We have done numerous 'open airs' or street preachings, visited an orphanage, visited a school that is located in a dump, ran a youth camp. The stories are endless and I could go on forever. The one story I want to tell took place in the dump.
It is the city dump. Sadly, many of the refugees call that place home and spend their days looking for things to recycle and get some money for throughout he piles of garbage. Pastor Michael has been working with these people for some time now and has built the children their a school. We were privileged to visit the school and just hang out with the children. We played games, performed skits, sang songs...just loved on them. It was so cool to see them just be able to be kids because frankly, their situation forced them to grow up way too fast. You had 8 year olds raising their infant siblings, like a mother/father would. Whenever a new load of trash would drive by, boys would scatter and start chasing it to get first pickings at the new stuff. It was heartbreaking. They are children, they shouldn't have to be concerned with such things. Its just frustrating, especially since they fled from a horrible situation in Myanmar and now are living in squalor and the government does nothing for them. On a much much much more positive note, at the school our group ended up doing our little open air set (including Bieber) on a whim. About 18 kids decided to give their lives to Christ! It was so awesome to see them all huddled together with their hands up in the air praying out to our God!
Friday we started a 'youth camp' of sorts for some kids at a Burmese school. They are really cool kids and we all really connected with them. We taught them games and just ran a VBS of sorts. Our focus was getting them to really take their faith out into their communities. Currently its Sunday afternoon and we just finished the camp and just have some down time. Next week is going to be filled with many more opportunities. We are doing jail ministry, going into a village, possibly the refugee camp, a clinic and many many more open airs. We leave Sunday, April 10 for Chiang Mai (further north).
Miss all of you guys and wish the best on Spring Break! Your prayers do much more than you could imagine over here. Thank you!
Josh
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Thailand!
This blog post is super short, but we wanted to tell everyone we made it safely!
We will share more this weekend!
Thank you for keeping us in your prayers!
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Thailand here we come!
This week was all about spiritual warfare. We talked about what the enemy does to try and run us into the ground and then we do to combat it, we are all soldiers after all. What is it that we can do to try and combat any evil or darkness of this world? Live the Christian lifestyle! Prayer, worship, scripture, fasting, the blood of Jesus, the name of Jesus, and our testimony are all powerful weapons against the devil and his plans. It was just a cool week. No matter what the devil throws at us, it doesn't matter at all because we have the weapon of Jesus on our side. "Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:9-11)." Every knee....in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. Thats every created being, including the enemy. How comforting is that, to know that no matter what, every knee shall bow at the name of our savior?
That was the final topic of the whole DTS. You know what that means? Outreach is here! We cannot believe its here already. Outreach is just around the corner and we cannot wait for the experience. Its hard to believe that 12 weeks have already past. If this is how fast 12 weeks go, how fast will 10 weeks go?
Thailand should be a blast. It will be hot and humid but I think we are ready. We will be spending the first couple of days in Bangkok for orientation. Then we will be heading up into the north part of Thailand, Mae Sot to be exact, for two weeks. There we will work with refugees from Myanmar. After our two weeks we will head further north in Chang Mai. We will be there for four weeks working with a university teaching english, in the red light district, and going into hill tribes. Following that we will spend two weeks near the Thai-Cambodian border in an orphanage. This is the part I'm most excited about. We will be hanging with the kids, cleaning up, and fixing the place. Basically, we are just going to bless everyone there. After those two weeks, our trip is basically done. The final week we are there we are going to be in Bangkok just chilling out and unwinding/debriefing before heading home. It will all be a blast and will probably fly by. We will try to update this blog as much as possible. We will have internet access frequently but its a matter of time to update it.
If you have been following along on my facebook you might have seen that some people needed their funds before they could go. To update you....EVERYONE has gotten all of their funds in! That means no will be left behind! Praise God!
For those of you who haven't seen it yet, I thought I would give you the pleasure of seeing the final product of my mustache competition.
Don't worry. I shaved it off the next day. It was way too disgusting.
Thanks for all of your prayers over this amazing experience in Oregon. Now its on to Thailand and we will need your prayers even more. God bless you all and enjoy! We leave on Thursday morning! Woo hoo!
Josh
That was the final topic of the whole DTS. You know what that means? Outreach is here! We cannot believe its here already. Outreach is just around the corner and we cannot wait for the experience. Its hard to believe that 12 weeks have already past. If this is how fast 12 weeks go, how fast will 10 weeks go?
Thailand should be a blast. It will be hot and humid but I think we are ready. We will be spending the first couple of days in Bangkok for orientation. Then we will be heading up into the north part of Thailand, Mae Sot to be exact, for two weeks. There we will work with refugees from Myanmar. After our two weeks we will head further north in Chang Mai. We will be there for four weeks working with a university teaching english, in the red light district, and going into hill tribes. Following that we will spend two weeks near the Thai-Cambodian border in an orphanage. This is the part I'm most excited about. We will be hanging with the kids, cleaning up, and fixing the place. Basically, we are just going to bless everyone there. After those two weeks, our trip is basically done. The final week we are there we are going to be in Bangkok just chilling out and unwinding/debriefing before heading home. It will all be a blast and will probably fly by. We will try to update this blog as much as possible. We will have internet access frequently but its a matter of time to update it.
If you have been following along on my facebook you might have seen that some people needed their funds before they could go. To update you....EVERYONE has gotten all of their funds in! That means no will be left behind! Praise God!
For those of you who haven't seen it yet, I thought I would give you the pleasure of seeing the final product of my mustache competition.
Thanks for all of your prayers over this amazing experience in Oregon. Now its on to Thailand and we will need your prayers even more. God bless you all and enjoy! We leave on Thursday morning! Woo hoo!
Josh
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Only 12 more days!
Less than 2 weeks and we will be in 100 plus degree weather with 90 percent humidity! Yesterday we visited a monastery, for those of you who do not know, it is a buddhist temple. There is one on the corner of Quincy and 112th in Holland I think. We asked questions about the religion and practices as we prepare to enter their culture in a few weeks. The monk was very nice, but did not speak English fluently. Josh responded to one of the monks answers with "oh, thats cool" and the Monk just laughs and replys "no, its going to be really hot!" The monk just kept laughing at us and saying how we as foriengers are going to visist during the hottest time of year. Oh man, the Veltema sweat is really going to come out :)
We are getting excited, nervous, excited, and more nervous as we prepare for outreach. Monday night Josh and I spent time in a local Goodwill buying some outreach clothes, ones that we will be able to leave there due to sweat stains, and ware and tare from handwashing and no dyers. Of course on our way back to the base we had to stop at Safeway (a local grocery store) and pick up some ice cream. The food at the base is getting old (not saying its bad) but sometimes I just miss eating whatever I want, and of course my sweets. So, Josh and I enjoyed some Mocha Almond Fudge ice cream. Many of the students on base think its so funny when Josh and I to get excited about "new" places like Safeway since many of the stores in Oregon are not in Michigan. We usually have five min conversations everytime we go somewhere asking "do you have this, we have this..." Also, we still have our Michigan acents. Soon its crazy to think that we all will have crazy accents trying to speak in Thai.
This week we had Dan Baumann's sister speak, Lis Cochrane. Lis has been in YWAM
for over 25 years. She has spent most of her time in India starting YWAM bases and many organziations. She is very dedicated to using Business as Missions, and is dedicated to providing jobs to people in order to raise money. Check out http://www.affirmglobal.com/, for more information. Also check out Pure Hope Pakistan for another project she is apart of. Lis talked about Missions and our calling this week and where it is found in the Bible and when it started. Josh was super pumped about this week since it was a lot of history. We learned more facts about the unreached people group (a people group among where there is no indigenous community of believing Christians with adequate numbers and resources to evangelize itself) during a service on Thursday night. Josh and I could go on for hours about this!
Oh, update on the mustace: its gone! Josh won the "what stache" award.
Even in Oregon we get super excited about ice cream...
We are getting excited, nervous, excited, and more nervous as we prepare for outreach. Monday night Josh and I spent time in a local Goodwill buying some outreach clothes, ones that we will be able to leave there due to sweat stains, and ware and tare from handwashing and no dyers. Of course on our way back to the base we had to stop at Safeway (a local grocery store) and pick up some ice cream. The food at the base is getting old (not saying its bad) but sometimes I just miss eating whatever I want, and of course my sweets. So, Josh and I enjoyed some Mocha Almond Fudge ice cream. Many of the students on base think its so funny when Josh and I to get excited about "new" places like Safeway since many of the stores in Oregon are not in Michigan. We usually have five min conversations everytime we go somewhere asking "do you have this, we have this..." Also, we still have our Michigan acents. Soon its crazy to think that we all will have crazy accents trying to speak in Thai.
This week we had Dan Baumann's sister speak, Lis Cochrane. Lis has been in YWAM
for over 25 years. She has spent most of her time in India starting YWAM bases and many organziations. She is very dedicated to using Business as Missions, and is dedicated to providing jobs to people in order to raise money. Check out http://www.affirmglobal.com/, for more information. Also check out Pure Hope Pakistan for another project she is apart of. Lis talked about Missions and our calling this week and where it is found in the Bible and when it started. Josh was super pumped about this week since it was a lot of history. We learned more facts about the unreached people group (a people group among where there is no indigenous community of believing Christians with adequate numbers and resources to evangelize itself) during a service on Thursday night. Josh and I could go on for hours about this!
Oh, update on the mustace: its gone! Josh won the "what stache" award.
Even in Oregon we get super excited about ice cream...
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Wow. Thats all I can say for this week. We had an amazing speaker and an exhilarating weekend.
Dan Baumann was our speaker this week. You might recognize his name and rightfully so. He actually has two books out..."A Beautiful Way" and "Imprisoned in Iran." He is an inspiring speaker and amazing person. He shared so many awesome stories with us during the week while speaking in his topic so fittingly named "A Beautiful Way." Dan's basic premise....JESUS LOVES ME! It really is that simple. He loves us when we fail, He loves us when we do great things, He just loves us period. Our part is to simply recognize such love. When we recognize how much we are loved it is only natural that we love back and seek more of that love. It's so simple! A great example that Dan explained was through his story of failures. We often fail as human beings. Also being human we like to relish on the fact that we failed and wallow in our sorrow. Often the situation goes like this...
"God forgive me! I failed you horribly." Then we just wallow in our sorrow. God: "I forgive you." "Thank you...gah, I'm so horrible I can't believed I failed." God: "Hey look at this...check out what I've done for you." "But God, I failed. I'm horrible." God: "You failed? What? when? but hey look at what I have for you."
And so on. We have to realize that we are loved as a person much more than our plan in life. As our speaker put it last week in a beautiful story. John 21:15-19. Peter is reinstated. What we don't realize is that what did Jesus do when he first called Peter? He told him to follow me. What is he doing in this passage? Telling Peter to follow Him. Peter's denial of Jesus, his failure, did not change the plan God had for Peter. God loves Peter much more than his plan.
I feel like I am not doing this topic and speaker any justice at all. I would highly suggest that you pick up, "A Beautiful Way" to dig deeper into the subject.
Besides our lecture we got to do the Ropes Course located here on Saturday. It was a blast. We got to do a number of obstacles including: a low ropes course, a giant swing, a blindfolded rope game, and a high ropes course. Let me explain. Giant swing.....the greatest thing I have ever done in my life. Climb up a 30 ft pole to a platform, attack a cable to your harness, and swing down. Because of the decline in the hill it was perched on we had to travel at least 80 ft and must have been 40-50ft off the ground in the trees at our highest point. It was unbelievably awesome! I want to drag every single student in the youth group out here to just do it. Despite the awesome experiences we had separately it was really cool to see how well we worked together as a team and how well we encouraged each other. It was a day full of encouragement and teamwork and just pure enjoyment.
A little over two weeks until we leave for Thailand! Found out some exciting news this week about our outreach. The last two weeks of outreach, believe it or not, we will be living in an orphanage in eastern Thailand. I, for one, was really excited to hear this and cannot wait for the experience.
Thanks for the continual prayers and support. We love you all and miss you all!
Josh
Dan Baumann was our speaker this week. You might recognize his name and rightfully so. He actually has two books out..."A Beautiful Way" and "Imprisoned in Iran." He is an inspiring speaker and amazing person. He shared so many awesome stories with us during the week while speaking in his topic so fittingly named "A Beautiful Way." Dan's basic premise....JESUS LOVES ME! It really is that simple. He loves us when we fail, He loves us when we do great things, He just loves us period. Our part is to simply recognize such love. When we recognize how much we are loved it is only natural that we love back and seek more of that love. It's so simple! A great example that Dan explained was through his story of failures. We often fail as human beings. Also being human we like to relish on the fact that we failed and wallow in our sorrow. Often the situation goes like this...
"God forgive me! I failed you horribly." Then we just wallow in our sorrow. God: "I forgive you." "Thank you...gah, I'm so horrible I can't believed I failed." God: "Hey look at this...check out what I've done for you." "But God, I failed. I'm horrible." God: "You failed? What? when? but hey look at what I have for you."
And so on. We have to realize that we are loved as a person much more than our plan in life. As our speaker put it last week in a beautiful story. John 21:15-19. Peter is reinstated. What we don't realize is that what did Jesus do when he first called Peter? He told him to follow me. What is he doing in this passage? Telling Peter to follow Him. Peter's denial of Jesus, his failure, did not change the plan God had for Peter. God loves Peter much more than his plan.
I feel like I am not doing this topic and speaker any justice at all. I would highly suggest that you pick up, "A Beautiful Way" to dig deeper into the subject.
Besides our lecture we got to do the Ropes Course located here on Saturday. It was a blast. We got to do a number of obstacles including: a low ropes course, a giant swing, a blindfolded rope game, and a high ropes course. Let me explain. Giant swing.....the greatest thing I have ever done in my life. Climb up a 30 ft pole to a platform, attack a cable to your harness, and swing down. Because of the decline in the hill it was perched on we had to travel at least 80 ft and must have been 40-50ft off the ground in the trees at our highest point. It was unbelievably awesome! I want to drag every single student in the youth group out here to just do it. Despite the awesome experiences we had separately it was really cool to see how well we worked together as a team and how well we encouraged each other. It was a day full of encouragement and teamwork and just pure enjoyment.
A little over two weeks until we leave for Thailand! Found out some exciting news this week about our outreach. The last two weeks of outreach, believe it or not, we will be living in an orphanage in eastern Thailand. I, for one, was really excited to hear this and cannot wait for the experience.
Thanks for the continual prayers and support. We love you all and miss you all!
Josh
Monday, February 28, 2011
Communication...
Hello Everyone! I know, I finally am updating the blog. Writing is not one of my favorite things to do, especially knowing that Josh can write something amazing in a few minutes while it takes me forever to write...well just not as good as him. So, Josh is being a good boyfriend I guess by making me practice.
A small glimpse of downtown Portland.
The weekends are becoming more busy but also more exciting considering the fact that we have less than a month before Thailand! I opened my eyes this weekend as I explore Portland and Salem, and I keep soaking up as much as I can because its amazing here and this is once in a lifetime opportunity that I will be with these friends, leaders, and the lovely 'mossy' area. Its amazing how we can get caught up with the businesses of life and not cherish the simple things and great relationships God placed for us.
In the van on the way home from church on Sunday, we all were talking about restaurants and food...because after church that's what you focus on right? Anyways, I mentioned that I had a craving for a good burger and fries (which doesn't happen all the time, so this was big stuff). Ashley, our leader mentioned a burger place her friends love and we should check it out. Five Guys was the fellowship spot after church that day.
Let's all look at Josh's facial hair in this picture. Tomorrow is the big day he shaves everything but the mustache...oh boy!
The message I posted on the Five Guys bulletin board.
Thank you again everyone for the prayers and support!
This past week Randy Thomas spoke on hearing Gods voice and being history makers. He emphasized how God is a communicating God, and a two way relationship is essential. God will speak most clearly and most often in a relationship. My favorite day this week was Saturday in Portland for "faith day". As students we were were split into teams of three to four people. As a team we had to complete specific tasks throughout the day, including picking up trash, giving something away, do something you wouldn't normally do, ask God for an encouraging word for someone..etc. As we completed the task, we had to rely on God to give us a person, words, places..etc. It was awesome to see myself getting so excited to talk to random people on the streets and seeing how God reveals himself when we listen and obey, and then the relationships we create. So many stories, I can't wait to share!
The weekends are becoming more busy but also more exciting considering the fact that we have less than a month before Thailand! I opened my eyes this weekend as I explore Portland and Salem, and I keep soaking up as much as I can because its amazing here and this is once in a lifetime opportunity that I will be with these friends, leaders, and the lovely 'mossy' area. Its amazing how we can get caught up with the businesses of life and not cherish the simple things and great relationships God placed for us.
In the van on the way home from church on Sunday, we all were talking about restaurants and food...because after church that's what you focus on right? Anyways, I mentioned that I had a craving for a good burger and fries (which doesn't happen all the time, so this was big stuff). Ashley, our leader mentioned a burger place her friends love and we should check it out. Five Guys was the fellowship spot after church that day.
Let's all look at Josh's facial hair in this picture. Tomorrow is the big day he shaves everything but the mustache...oh boy!
The message I posted on the Five Guys bulletin board.Thank you again everyone for the prayers and support!
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Open your eyes...
Lecture topic this week...Spiritual Worldview
This week covered the ideas of spiritual realms and the events/rituals, people, bodies, objects, etc that accompany spirits. Our teacher, Heather Majoribanks pointed out through the week that we have such a limited view of the spiritual world here in the west compared to other parts of the world. It may seem weird that we talked about ghosts, evil spirits, amulets, etc but in a majority of cultures around the world they are very prominent and it is very important to be open minded to such things so that when confronted with an issue we are not offensive. It was a really interesting and eye opening week that will be very useful on outreach. Now knowing what many of the people believe and more importantly why they believe it we can tread carefully and show love instead of mockery when we are faced with something that seems a little too out there.
By the way....much of the practices done in Hinduism or Buddhism such as divination, fortune telling, calling up in evil spirits, they are all in the Bible. Every single one of them has some sort of link in the Bible. Each one is condemned and has a Biblical principle that overcomes it. Pretty amazing.
Outside of class we do have a life. Hanging out with friends, walking around downtown Salem, hanging out with staff, stuff like that is pretty common. Thursday night was special though. Our staff put on a mystery play that we had to solve through clues and questions. It was like Clue only alive. Really fun! The Fall DTS teams arrived from Thailand and Africa on Thursday and Friday evening. It will be exciting to hear their stories this coming week.
After this week, I have to shave all but the mustache. Danielle is not too happy and is not too happy with the inspiration I have been receiving from home in the form of Bearduary but it is all in good fun. I'll have to admit that the stache has become a bother to even me but I'm holding out until the end.
I miss little old Zeeland and VRC very much. I cannot wait to share all of my experiences especially from the coming months in Thailand!
Stay safe!
Josh
This week covered the ideas of spiritual realms and the events/rituals, people, bodies, objects, etc that accompany spirits. Our teacher, Heather Majoribanks pointed out through the week that we have such a limited view of the spiritual world here in the west compared to other parts of the world. It may seem weird that we talked about ghosts, evil spirits, amulets, etc but in a majority of cultures around the world they are very prominent and it is very important to be open minded to such things so that when confronted with an issue we are not offensive. It was a really interesting and eye opening week that will be very useful on outreach. Now knowing what many of the people believe and more importantly why they believe it we can tread carefully and show love instead of mockery when we are faced with something that seems a little too out there.
By the way....much of the practices done in Hinduism or Buddhism such as divination, fortune telling, calling up in evil spirits, they are all in the Bible. Every single one of them has some sort of link in the Bible. Each one is condemned and has a Biblical principle that overcomes it. Pretty amazing.
Outside of class we do have a life. Hanging out with friends, walking around downtown Salem, hanging out with staff, stuff like that is pretty common. Thursday night was special though. Our staff put on a mystery play that we had to solve through clues and questions. It was like Clue only alive. Really fun! The Fall DTS teams arrived from Thailand and Africa on Thursday and Friday evening. It will be exciting to hear their stories this coming week.
After this week, I have to shave all but the mustache. Danielle is not too happy and is not too happy with the inspiration I have been receiving from home in the form of Bearduary but it is all in good fun. I'll have to admit that the stache has become a bother to even me but I'm holding out until the end.
I miss little old Zeeland and VRC very much. I cannot wait to share all of my experiences especially from the coming months in Thailand!
Stay safe!
Josh
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Oh how time flies!
I cannot believe that it has been one month already! Everything has just been flying by but it has been worth every single second. Before I get into the week I just want to thank all of the supporters again. We recently found out how much everyone owes for the remainder of school and to know that we are completely covered is a huge burden off our shoulders. Thank you!
Alright, as for this week, our speaker was Phil Gazely. He is actually the dad of one of the girls in our class so it was an interesting experience. He is a great guy and he is really passionate about spreading the Kingdom of God. He spoke to us about the Holy Spirit. It was a very interesting topic to study. Church in America, unless its the Pentecostal, doesn't really talk about the Holy Spirit all that much so to learn a whole bunch of new stuff was awesome. First and foremost we learned that the Holy Spirit is not an it but a He and is completely divine. The rest of the week consisted of deciding what the Holy Spirit does for us. Essentially the Holy Spirit is our guide, leading us into a deeper and more personal relationship with God and equipping us with the gifts necessary to share the love of God. The part that impacted me most was the idea that we can become 'constipated Christians.' Constantly filling up ourselves with the Holy Spirit and then doing nothing with the gifts we receive is not Christianity. We are called to fill ourselves with the Spirit then empty ourselves in order to fill others up and then repeat the cycle. Its all quite complicated and I can't wait to share more about it when I get back.
Outside of class we did a lot of the usual until Friday and Saturday. Friday night was our outreach night. This week we went to an exhibit that featured injustices and natural disasters from around the world and what Medical Teams International is and has done for such disasters. It was really eye opening and a wonderful exhibit. Saturday we continued on the theme of injustice and went through the Experiencing Injustice the Mobile Team does on base here. I don't want to spill too much about it because both Danielle and I really want to bring it back home but lets just say it was an intense experience.
Overall it was a great and fun week!
Youth With A Mustache Update: 1 week down...not much there (I know there is the chin fuzz as well but for the first four weeks we can grow whatever we want. Its not until the last two weeks that we have to have just the stache). Next week probably won't be much different. I'm what you call a baby face.
Hope all is well at home. Danielle and I really miss the snow and are actually quite jealous of all the snow you have! Also, sorry for not updating with pictures... please forgive us :(
Miss you guys.
Josh
Alright, as for this week, our speaker was Phil Gazely. He is actually the dad of one of the girls in our class so it was an interesting experience. He is a great guy and he is really passionate about spreading the Kingdom of God. He spoke to us about the Holy Spirit. It was a very interesting topic to study. Church in America, unless its the Pentecostal, doesn't really talk about the Holy Spirit all that much so to learn a whole bunch of new stuff was awesome. First and foremost we learned that the Holy Spirit is not an it but a He and is completely divine. The rest of the week consisted of deciding what the Holy Spirit does for us. Essentially the Holy Spirit is our guide, leading us into a deeper and more personal relationship with God and equipping us with the gifts necessary to share the love of God. The part that impacted me most was the idea that we can become 'constipated Christians.' Constantly filling up ourselves with the Holy Spirit and then doing nothing with the gifts we receive is not Christianity. We are called to fill ourselves with the Spirit then empty ourselves in order to fill others up and then repeat the cycle. Its all quite complicated and I can't wait to share more about it when I get back.
Outside of class we did a lot of the usual until Friday and Saturday. Friday night was our outreach night. This week we went to an exhibit that featured injustices and natural disasters from around the world and what Medical Teams International is and has done for such disasters. It was really eye opening and a wonderful exhibit. Saturday we continued on the theme of injustice and went through the Experiencing Injustice the Mobile Team does on base here. I don't want to spill too much about it because both Danielle and I really want to bring it back home but lets just say it was an intense experience.
Overall it was a great and fun week!
Youth With A Mustache Update: 1 week down...not much there (I know there is the chin fuzz as well but for the first four weeks we can grow whatever we want. Its not until the last two weeks that we have to have just the stache). Next week probably won't be much different. I'm what you call a baby face.
Hope all is well at home. Danielle and I really miss the snow and are actually quite jealous of all the snow you have! Also, sorry for not updating with pictures... please forgive us :(
Miss you guys.
Josh
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Forgiveness and Repentance
Wow! I can't believe we are going on week four. Everything is going well and we have enjoyed the sunshine so much this week! Josh and I even did some homework outside in the sun on Wednesday afternoon. Josh is getting excited for the "Youth With a Mustache" competition. He has 1 month to compete with other guys from the base to grow out his facial hair...oh boy.
This week Jerry Praetzel, a familiar speaker throughout YWAM came to speak about forgiveness and repentance. It was a week filled with deep personal thinking and openness with ourselves, others, and God. By the end of the week we were free from what once bound us. Below is a picture of a tree that Josh painted during our creative worship Friday morning, and my little sunshine in the corner.
This week we learned a little bit more about the plans for outreach. Please keep praying for the travel plans since they are not fully in place. We started learning some of the Thai language, and the culture. We also were assigned different leadership roles for the team. Josh is assigned to the childrens ministry and I with budgeting the expenses.
This is a short post compared to last week, but hopefully we can take some pictures in the next few days and put them up.
Josh and I want to thank all of you for the continued prayers & support.
Danielle
This week Jerry Praetzel, a familiar speaker throughout YWAM came to speak about forgiveness and repentance. It was a week filled with deep personal thinking and openness with ourselves, others, and God. By the end of the week we were free from what once bound us. Below is a picture of a tree that Josh painted during our creative worship Friday morning, and my little sunshine in the corner.
This week we learned a little bit more about the plans for outreach. Please keep praying for the travel plans since they are not fully in place. We started learning some of the Thai language, and the culture. We also were assigned different leadership roles for the team. Josh is assigned to the childrens ministry and I with budgeting the expenses.
This is a short post compared to last week, but hopefully we can take some pictures in the next few days and put them up.
Josh and I want to thank all of you for the continued prayers & support.
Danielle
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Evangelism...
As you can probably tell by the title, this week's topic was evangelism. It was an interesting, powerful and convicting week. Our speaker David Lehmann was very passionate about evangelism and it was all but impossible to pick up on his enthusiasm. One thing that I was really impacted by this week was how complicated Christians and the church make evangelism. Why is it so hard for us to speak the name of Jesus in public? If you go and see a movie and really enjoy it, naturally you are going to go out and tell all of your friends about it. Why don't we do the same with the gospel? It is the greatest news of all isn't it? Jesus is much more important than a movie, right?
It was really challenging this week because I am scared to go up to a complete stranger and start up a conversation about Jesus but the more I think about it the more necessary it is to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the entire world! I've always felt I have been doing my part in evangelism with things like mission trips and the Hope Bus, which are great ministries that do great works for the Kingdom of God, but David really pushed it further than just serving people or building relationships. Yes, we can serve someone in the name of Jesus but eventually it has to come to the point where we are intentionally speaking the word of Christ. Someone will not automatically be saved by the actions we do. Our actions are the key that can unlock the door but again, it comes back to being intentional about sharing the gospel message.
We were able to practice the new ideals of evangelism and the practical teachings from the week Thursday night in downtown Portland. There is a ministry called Nightstrike that gathers under a bridge and provides a hot meal, haircuts, foot washings, pedicures, manicures, Christian literature, someone to talk to, and the gospel message to the homeless. We each got placed into different groups. I was assigned to a group of people who would go out from the bridge and find people within the city itself to hand out sandwiches and a drink and socks. During our journey we met a man named Burt. We started a conversation and quickly realized he was very drunk. It was difficult to stand there for an hour listening to him stammer on uselessly and not being able to find the entrance to open up the conversation to Jesus when there are people out there that will gladly speak to us about it. BUT, we stuck to it and like I said, stood there for an hour before we had our opportunity to share our faith. Unfortunately because of his current mental state it seemed that nothing was getting through. We left the conversation discouraged but I remembered David's teaching earlier in the day. We are not going to be able to save every person that we meet on the spot but we can move them closer to salvation with each meeting. So, I left hoping that our conversation would stick enough to move Burt closer to salvation. Our time with Burt went so long that we had to start heading back to the bridge but we still had food and socks to give out so on our way back we kept our eyes and hearts open. I then spotted a couple of people sitting on the corner begging for money and my heart jumped....here was our opportunity. They gladly accepted our stuff and we got into a small conversation. After hearing their story we asked if we could pray for them and they gladly agreed. Unfortunately because of time restrictions we were not able to stay and talk longer but I left that meeting knowing that something was planted in their heads. Although disappointed that I wasn't able to bring them to salvation I have to trust that God will provide the people they need to bring them to him. I did my part that night but I wonder if I did enough.
All of that to say, are we doing enough? 95% of Christians will never share the gospel to someone. How sad is that? What was Jesus' last command? GO, and preach the gospel! Why are we so focused on ourselves that we completely miss the people crying out for help? Why aren't our churches flooded with the homeless, drunks, drug addicts, or lost? What is the worst that could happen if you asked someone if you could tell them about Jesus? They say no. What's the best thing that could happen? YOU SAVE THEM! Now think of what would happen if you don't ask...whats the worst thing? They are lost for eternity.
I'm done preaching but I challenge anyone to work on not being ashamed of the greatest man in history, not being ashamed to even mention the name of Jesus in public. Its something that I'm working on because in the end, it is what we are called to do.
Danielle and I are continually blessed with letters, prayers, and support. We just want to thank each and every one of you for partnering with us through this journey. You are all on our hearts and as much a part of this journey as we are. Thanks,
Josh
It was really challenging this week because I am scared to go up to a complete stranger and start up a conversation about Jesus but the more I think about it the more necessary it is to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the entire world! I've always felt I have been doing my part in evangelism with things like mission trips and the Hope Bus, which are great ministries that do great works for the Kingdom of God, but David really pushed it further than just serving people or building relationships. Yes, we can serve someone in the name of Jesus but eventually it has to come to the point where we are intentionally speaking the word of Christ. Someone will not automatically be saved by the actions we do. Our actions are the key that can unlock the door but again, it comes back to being intentional about sharing the gospel message.
We were able to practice the new ideals of evangelism and the practical teachings from the week Thursday night in downtown Portland. There is a ministry called Nightstrike that gathers under a bridge and provides a hot meal, haircuts, foot washings, pedicures, manicures, Christian literature, someone to talk to, and the gospel message to the homeless. We each got placed into different groups. I was assigned to a group of people who would go out from the bridge and find people within the city itself to hand out sandwiches and a drink and socks. During our journey we met a man named Burt. We started a conversation and quickly realized he was very drunk. It was difficult to stand there for an hour listening to him stammer on uselessly and not being able to find the entrance to open up the conversation to Jesus when there are people out there that will gladly speak to us about it. BUT, we stuck to it and like I said, stood there for an hour before we had our opportunity to share our faith. Unfortunately because of his current mental state it seemed that nothing was getting through. We left the conversation discouraged but I remembered David's teaching earlier in the day. We are not going to be able to save every person that we meet on the spot but we can move them closer to salvation with each meeting. So, I left hoping that our conversation would stick enough to move Burt closer to salvation. Our time with Burt went so long that we had to start heading back to the bridge but we still had food and socks to give out so on our way back we kept our eyes and hearts open. I then spotted a couple of people sitting on the corner begging for money and my heart jumped....here was our opportunity. They gladly accepted our stuff and we got into a small conversation. After hearing their story we asked if we could pray for them and they gladly agreed. Unfortunately because of time restrictions we were not able to stay and talk longer but I left that meeting knowing that something was planted in their heads. Although disappointed that I wasn't able to bring them to salvation I have to trust that God will provide the people they need to bring them to him. I did my part that night but I wonder if I did enough.
All of that to say, are we doing enough? 95% of Christians will never share the gospel to someone. How sad is that? What was Jesus' last command? GO, and preach the gospel! Why are we so focused on ourselves that we completely miss the people crying out for help? Why aren't our churches flooded with the homeless, drunks, drug addicts, or lost? What is the worst that could happen if you asked someone if you could tell them about Jesus? They say no. What's the best thing that could happen? YOU SAVE THEM! Now think of what would happen if you don't ask...whats the worst thing? They are lost for eternity.
I'm done preaching but I challenge anyone to work on not being ashamed of the greatest man in history, not being ashamed to even mention the name of Jesus in public. Its something that I'm working on because in the end, it is what we are called to do.
Danielle and I are continually blessed with letters, prayers, and support. We just want to thank each and every one of you for partnering with us through this journey. You are all on our hearts and as much a part of this journey as we are. Thanks,
Josh
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Week 1
We finished our first week of class! We are creating new friends, routines, and learning many new things! We are all so excited to start this amazing journey with God and “Grow to Go”, the theme for the semester. In class this week we had a few staff from the YWAM base come and speak. Amy McGee, our school leader spoke about our relationship with God and His character. We learned that God reveals himself through creation, His word, relationships, signs & wonders, and His spirit. Andy Yaxley, spoke to us about hearing Gods voice. Many times throughout this week we practiced hearing Gods voice, and we are excited to continually do this to experience and create deeper relationship with Him. As we prepare for the journey over the next six months, Jason Treadwell spoke to us the remaining of the week about living in community and forming strong unity. One of the key verses that stood out this week was Colossians 3:12-17. It tells us to clothe ourselves with virtues like compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, and forgiveness. With Gods love, they bind us together in perfect unity. As we continue to apply this, we pray for Gods help.
My birthday turned out to be wonderful! Thank you for all the birthday cards! The girls surprised me with lots of balloons and a big sign on my door. I was also surprised with a delicious brownie cake. Be proud grandpas, Josh had flowers sent to the base for me. It was also an exciting day because it was the revealing of the locations for outreach!
Our school is going to send two teams to different places. After the locations were revealed, we were not expecting to make a decision on the location that night. As one of the leaders started to quiet our excitement, she asked us to go and pray about what location Gods is calling us to. It was silent, everyone was shocked. No one could talk to each other! We sat in prayer and wrote whatever God was telling us on a piece of paper. The leaders then prayed over the locations and picked the teams. Josh and I ended up being on the same team. (A relief for the parents.) Oh yeah.. WE ARE GOING TO THAILAND! We don't have a lot of detail at this point, but we are leaving on March 24.
This past weekend we had the opportunity to walk downtown Salem and hand out cups of hot chocolate to people on the street. It felt like home as it reminded both Josh and I of Vriesland's Hope Bus. Whether students just gave one cup away or whether they sat and listened to testimonies, God was there. I actually talked to three individuals for at least 15min each and they opened up to me about there life story, and allowed me to pray for them. It was amazing what a simple cup of hot chocolate can do.
Thank you for the prayers and support. Josh & I are so blessed and we can't thank you enough!
This week please pray that we continue to hear Gods voice. Also for the leaders as they set up travel arrangements for the outreach.
-Danielle
Some pictures are posted below, and you can click on the pictures to make them larger. Yesterday some friends on base that live in Oregon took us to the Silver Falls. Living in Oregon we have learned that we will do things whether rain or shine! Pictures can't come close to describe Gods beautiful creation!
My birthday turned out to be wonderful! Thank you for all the birthday cards! The girls surprised me with lots of balloons and a big sign on my door. I was also surprised with a delicious brownie cake. Be proud grandpas, Josh had flowers sent to the base for me. It was also an exciting day because it was the revealing of the locations for outreach!
Our school is going to send two teams to different places. After the locations were revealed, we were not expecting to make a decision on the location that night. As one of the leaders started to quiet our excitement, she asked us to go and pray about what location Gods is calling us to. It was silent, everyone was shocked. No one could talk to each other! We sat in prayer and wrote whatever God was telling us on a piece of paper. The leaders then prayed over the locations and picked the teams. Josh and I ended up being on the same team. (A relief for the parents.) Oh yeah.. WE ARE GOING TO THAILAND! We don't have a lot of detail at this point, but we are leaving on March 24.
This past weekend we had the opportunity to walk downtown Salem and hand out cups of hot chocolate to people on the street. It felt like home as it reminded both Josh and I of Vriesland's Hope Bus. Whether students just gave one cup away or whether they sat and listened to testimonies, God was there. I actually talked to three individuals for at least 15min each and they opened up to me about there life story, and allowed me to pray for them. It was amazing what a simple cup of hot chocolate can do.
Thank you for the prayers and support. Josh & I are so blessed and we can't thank you enough!
This week please pray that we continue to hear Gods voice. Also for the leaders as they set up travel arrangements for the outreach.
-Danielle
Some pictures are posted below, and you can click on the pictures to make them larger. Yesterday some friends on base that live in Oregon took us to the Silver Falls. Living in Oregon we have learned that we will do things whether rain or shine! Pictures can't come close to describe Gods beautiful creation!
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Its Only the Beginning...
Yes, we made it safely to Oregon. Yes, it has rained but there has been quite a bit of sunshine as well. And yes, we are both very excited for the school to start. This week has been filled with a lot of nerves, awkward ice-breakers, and a lot of down time. Despite our beliefs, there are actually 16 students here instead of the 9 we originally knew of and yet, I am outnumbered 4 to 1. The base is, in Danielle's words, "very mossy." It is really surprising to be walking around in January and not have white stuff up to your knees. Everything is so green! The base is nice, open, and large. Our rooms are pretty basic. Danielle shares a room with two girls and I am with one other guy. As for school, not much has started yet just the basic syllabus stuff. We were assigned work duties for the remainder of the camp. I will be washing dishes and the kitchen area after dinner while Danielle learns how to cook for a large group of people again. This time...no cookie dough out of the fridge. So far this weekend it has been more of a get to know your classmates type activities. We shared testimonies for a good part of the day yesterday and actually just got back from a "Find the Leader" scavenger hunt in downtown Salem. The group is really a fun group and our leaders are a great bunch of people who really want to see us gel and grow. We learn where we are going for our Outreach on Danielle's birthday, January 13. We'll keep everyone posted on the location. On a lighter note, the first thing Danielle discovers on the base....a workout program within the staff here at the base. Of course. After much prodding I think that I'm going to get dragged out of bed to join the group as well.
All this in only a couple of days. Its a wonder what a full week will look like. Before we know it we will be off for another adventure somewhere in the world! Appreciate all of the support and we miss all of you already!
Josh
p.s. Danielle wants to give a shout out to the GVSU Student Development for her first postcard. She was really pumped!
All this in only a couple of days. Its a wonder what a full week will look like. Before we know it we will be off for another adventure somewhere in the world! Appreciate all of the support and we miss all of you already!
Josh
p.s. Danielle wants to give a shout out to the GVSU Student Development for her first postcard. She was really pumped!
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