Outreach Details!!! :)

Wow. I just realized that although some of you may already know a little bit about my outreach location and what I will be doing, I haven't posted anything about it on my blog. I don't know what I was thinking because I am anxiously awaiting December 5th. This is the early morning that our entire group of 3 separate outreach teams are flying out of Maui to Honolulu, then to Tokyo, then Taipei and finally - off to Bangkok, Thailand - which is what I have been informed, a 20+ hour flight. (The flight is not what I am excited about. --eeeks!) After we arrive in Bangkok, all 3 teams will be spending 10 days together at the Thailand YWAM base, helping out with ministries there. When the 10 days have passed, Team C and Team Bangla will disperse and my wonderful Thailand/"M" team will begin our 3 month outreach adventure! Our first destination will be Khonkean, Thailand where we will spend Dec. 15th- Jan. 5th helping a woman named Nella start up a new shelter called the Tamar Center for women. She was the founder of the first center in the city of Pattaya and now she is wanting to expand the ministry. It's really exciting because we will be the first group involved there to help her start everything and reach out to the women in this new town. I pray that it will be a success and that it will make a profound impact on the lives of these women and their families! The reason the Khonkean village was chosen is that it is a poorer section of Thailand and the people there don't have many resources to make a decent living for themselves. Typically when this is the case, the women usually feel inclined to cave into prostitution because they think it is the only possible means to provide for their families. What breaks my heart even more is that some of the parents sell their daughters (as young as 6 years old!) into prostitution just to make a little bit of money! When this decision is made, they have to move to the city of Pattaya, the Red Light District of Thailand along the coast where most of the prostitutes thrive. Our goal will be to show these women and mothers that Jesus loves them more than they can imagine and that he has created them for a much greater purpose and they do not have to resort to selling themselves...also that Jesus will provide for their needs if they put their faith and trust in Him!!! **** We will be travelling to "M" after this for a period of time that we have not finalized yet. Our contact there recommended that we only stay for about 2 weeks for our own safety. The whole time we are there, we will be monitored by the G.I.'s (government intelligence) to make sure that we aren't evangelizing to the people of this country. While here, we will be reaching out to the people living in the slums and we will be teaching English (incorporating the gospel in whatever way we can!) When we leave "M", we will head back to Thailand for the remainder of our outreach. My team will be ministering to the town of Pattaya, the red light district of Thailand. We will be working with the bar girls and prostitutes (typically the same thing) -- again, we will be teaching English to them and witnessing along the way like we will be in "M". We will also be helping in the slums of Pattaya, reaching out to the children there and showing them love they might not have experienced before. ***I will add more to this as I get any more updates!
So, all that being said I, I would like to ask you to pray for Me...and my team as we prepare for our Asia outreach.. I don't think that there is anyway for me to totally prepare myself for this (as far as the culture goes...Guys Mills is pretty much all I have known and I'm pretty sure that doesn't qualify for culture at all! Anyways, I really have been getting prepared in other ways - learning so SO much about the character of my sweet Lord and living my life out in the way that He intended me to; walking with Him every step of the way. :)

1st Month Update

Hello everyone!!
Well here I am, one month down.. Not that I am counting down at all because I am having a great time. This has been a very busy month because we have gotten deep into lectures and schoolwork. So far we have had 4 different speakers come and talk to us each week about 4 very different topics.
The first week a young man named Andy Byrd came and spoke with us about Intimacy with God and our Inheritance as Christians. He was the past director of the Maui base and now he travels all over with his wife and 2 young children as a missionary, going wherever God tells him to go!
The second week was very interesting, a young lady named Amy Sollars taught us about the Holy Spirit. It was a very intense 5 days and I've witnessed things I've never seen before.. pretty interesting! She is a very prophetic woman and her gifting is absolutely crazy. I didn't have any radical experiences like a lot of students in my class, but I have definitely learned that God speaks to us in different ways and at different times because he is a personal and intimate God who loves us all the same (so much we can't even begin to fathom the depths of his love for us!!!) :)
The third week was a really down to earth, but challenging week for us. What I mean by challenging is that our speaker, 25 year old Dave McCoy really encouraged us to listen to God when he tells us to do something, even if it is something we don't necessarily want to do. He did his DTS here in Maui when he was 18 and after that he felt he was called to start up a Missions School of Surfing in his hometown in California. He was at a conference one night and the speaker was talking about the great need for missionaries in Afghanistan. Dave felt the Lord speak to him and tell him that he should go there. He was really upset because he felt his calling was his passion for surfing, which he would not be able to do in Afghanistan! To make a long story short, he went and began a frontier mission field in Afghanistan and spent 2 years there. After that, God spoke to him and told him to stay for another 5 years and through his obedience he stayed although he didn't enjoy being there. Fresh back from returning from the dangerous middle east, Dave came and spoke to us about Missions and Obedience. He really put it into perspective that God has called all of us to go and make disciples of all nations. He has not told us to stay in our comfort zones and forget about all the troubles that are going on around us. Everyone is gifted in different ways and not everyone is called to go overseas to spread the gospel, there is a need everywhere for people to be reached with the truth of God's Word. I'm so excited to see where God leads me after this, He has not revealed that to me yet.. (I guess I should just focus on this for now.. haha I have a lot ahead of me already!!)
This past week the current director of our YWAM base, Tom Osterhus came in and spoke about The Bible overview. I definitely have a new desire in me to learn more and more (as much as I can) about the Bible. We spent 4 days quickly covering only Genesis and Exodus.. there is soo much in there that I would have never realized just reading it over by myself! (To the people in the 8 am Sunday study group with Pastor Steve: it made me smile knowing that I'm not completely missing out on the Genesis study!!! haha) The biggest thing that was revealed to me was that when I am in the nations spreading the Word of God, --what am I going to do when I am face to face with an unbeliever, trying to convince them of the truth about our book (The Bible) I haven't completely read yet!? I might only have experiences to share with them - They might have these too, maybe even stronger than mine! Some of these people will be very knowledgeable about their false religion and books. I really need to take this as a challenge and become more disciplined with reading and learning the truth of the Word of God.

Well that was my month of lectures in a nutshell.. I will create another post later to describe everything else I am experiencing.. the living conditions, friends, activities, etc. :)