Working hard in the D.R.

Hello all! I know its been quite some time since my family or any of my followers have heard from me, but internet in the D.R. isn`t particularly easy to come by. I`m sitting in an internet cafe right now, not know how long I have here to blog. We get dropped off my Stefan, one of our amazing Gateway staffers, and we are never really sure when he will come back.

Its so beautiful here. The mountains, beaches, and villages are stunning. It has been quite the cultural difference here though. After learning in the Gateway course about differing worldviews and working with the poor, I have a new veiw of short term mission trips. I wish I could explain what I mean in more detail, but this internet cafe is very loud and this boy is whistling, so I can`t concentrate very well. Forgive me if this post is not as imformative as you would like it to be.

We have been working in a village called Ascension. We are expanding the cafeteria at a Kids Alive center there, which is what they call a care center that kids go to after school. Its basically school though. They have normal classes, and a bible class and devotionals after lunch. They always give the kids one large meal a day at the school because its likely that that meal is the only one that a child will get each day. The economy not doing too well here, and many people are fighting to get money for food. So I have been shoveling rocks, dirt, and concrete most of the days in Ascension. You may not believe me, especially my parents and siblings, but I have actually been working my butt off in our construction time! I even have enlarged biceps to prove it. We also spend time with the children at the school too, performing skits and letting them play with our hair. I have spent most of my time within school grounds, but I have also spent time in the village of Ascension. Kids Alive (the school where we are working) have to accept kids who apply to go to the school, so there are a lot of kids who arent allowed in the school grounds, so we venture out to play with them and talk to their parents who own shops and want us to buy things.

Speaking of buying things, I am out of the money I brought here. Haha, it went so quickly! I am making a list of the things I have purchased currently to figure out where it all went. A lot of it I have spent on grocery trips I think. I get so hungry all the time, so I bought snacks. I have also bought a lot of things from people in Acsension and in Aguas Negras.

There is so much to say, but I cant think of it all right now. Here are some prayer requests:
-I have been struggeling with having total faith in God`s power (of healing especially)
-My physical health (allergies, stomach problems, etc)
-The village of Ascension (for jobs, health and hygeine, and motivation in the ppl to appreciate and use the land God has given them to farm)
-Sosua (huge prostitution problem in Sosua - we had the priveledge to witness it last weekend)

I have to run! Thanks for reading. God bless. Cant wait to come home!

Goodbye Texas... For Now

Guess what?

Tomorrow (well technically Sunday morning at 3am) we leave for the Dominican Republic! Time has gone by so quickly here. This week has been BST for the rest if the Gateway students who didn't complete it the week I did. So the eight of us took it pretty easy this week while the other 18 students fought fires, survived in the sea, and learned first aid and CPR. But there were still things to be done, so we didn't have all of the time to relax.

Much had to be done to prepare for the D.R. We packed many trunks full of food, towels, spanish bibles, tooth brushes, and tooth paste. We attempted to perfect the parable skits that we have prepared for the children in the school we are going to. My friend Alex and I are in charge of 2 skits each. Now I, having acted and stage managed in plays before, am having a difficult time with this task. Why? I guess because I'm used to hundreds of practices, costumes, make-up, and enthusiasm. I suppose my expectations were a little too high to begin with, so now I'm a little discouraged. Oh well! All that matters is that the kids enjoy the skits, and understand the lesson we are trying to teach them. Another responsibility I have in the D.R. is taking pictures. I was very pleased with this task. :-) I don't mind taking hundreds of pictures. In fact over the past two days I have been an unofficial photographer for the BST fire fighting and water survival practicals. I am putting all of the pictures (with Marty's help!) on CDs and giving them to those who are interested. Also, tonight I stayed up extremely late putting together the Gateway slide show to show to everyone tomorrow (Saturday), as requested by one of the staff members here. Speaking of late... It's 3:20am right now. I should head to bed. I have to finish packing and cleaning tomorrow before we leave. Its going to be a loooong Saturday.

Thanks to those of you who are keeping up with my blogs! It means a lot to me. God bless!

So Much to Learn

As I'm sitting here thinking over all the things I have learned over the past two and a half weeks, I am amazed my brain has been able to retain most of it. After completing BST, we (the 8 of us who completed the BST first) joined the rest of the Gateway students and moved into the classroom setting; sitting, listening, and discussing all day long. Although the lectures have been long, painful, and boring to get through at times, I must admit that much of what I have learned has challenged most of what I knew as a Believer. Maybe "challenged" isn't the right word, maybe it is. I don't know. What I mean is this: my perception of God wasn't right, I had no idea spiritual warfare was so real, current, and everywhere, obedience in prayer is essential, my weaknesses will never be my strengths so don't stress out over them (MYTH: fix your weaknesses! its good to be well-rounded!), conflicts need to be resolved/its okay to be confrontational when it is appropriate, and last but certainly not least, worldviews (understanding MY worldview and the worldview of those that I will be serving in the D.R. and Africa).

There is so much that I could tell you. I guess I'll give you a break down of what I have been learning each week.

I. 1st week, Faith Foundations
A. we talked about God’s character, how we view Him, who He really is, how our perceptions of God are influenced by people in our lives, experiences, tragedies, etc.
B. Kingdom Principles: taught by Dean Sherman on spiritual warfare. This was extremely interesting, important, and useful information. Where we are going to in West Africa (Benin and Togo) are the founders of Voodoo, so there is a lot of witchcraft there.
C. Principles of prayer: communication with God. We learned the basics of pray and why sometimes it seems as though our prayers are not being answered.
II. 2nd week, Personal and Interpersonal Development
A. Living on Purpose: What is our purpose? Life’s big questions. Who am I , where am I going, how am I going to get there, who will guide me, etc.
B. DISC test: We took a personality test that (kind of accurately) told us what we were like and picked out our strengths and weaknesses.
C. Conflict Resolution: how to resolve a conflict, how to approach the person, how to forgive, how to apologize; being confrontational is okay! And healthy! Don’t keep it bottled up.
D. Living and Working in Harmony: how to live in a community of 400 people from many different cultures on a ship.
III. 3rd week, Working with the Poor

A. WORLDVIEW

B. Potential of the Poor

C. Transformational Development

D. Cross-Cultural Dynamics and Communication

E. Tensions in Working with the Poor

So there you go. Some of these topics we talked about in great detail for several days, while others we covered in one day. Spiritual warfare (kingdom principles) was covered for three days because we will be dealing with this a lot on and off the ship in Benin and Togo. I have been told that voodoo originated in Benin, so these people know, believe, and live their witchcraft.

We have been discussing worldviews a lot this week, and how we as missionaries are to go into these poor nations. There are many encouraging stories like one of just one missionary leading an entire village (mind you, it took about 20 years before even seeing one person come to know the Lord) to believe in God, but there are many cases that are not encouraging. Instances where a church group or missionaries came into a village intending to do good, but leaving things worse than when they arrived. Money, buildings, and paved streets may not solve a nations problem, and yet so many times we (Westerners) go into a poor area and think money is the solution. Our worldview can sometimes hinder transformation or development from happening. We need to seek to be a learner/facilitator among the poor, not an expert/fixer.

One more thing is on my mind from what I heard in class today. I can't stop thinking about it. I am so ignorant. And the sad thing is, a lot of people are, especially kids my age. There are so many nations who need prayer and help. I live in a little happy box where I have everything I need and I do whatever I want. My biggest questions right now are: "What will I study in college? Where will I go to college? What will I do after college?", while some people (tribal Indians in Brazil) are asking themselves, "Will I have to burry my baby girl tomorrow? Why do I have to burry her? Why doesn't she have human rights? How can we end this cultural practice?". Indian parents in Brazil are being forced to burry their own child alive if it has any sign that it may be possessed by the devil, or soul-less. Signs of demon possession include not being able to walk or talk by a certain age, cleft pallets, and other physical deformities. Also, the child of a single mother must be burried alive. This issue has recently been brought to attention Brazilian gov't officials, but unfortunately many are saying that the Indians are not humans, and therefore do not have human rights. Again, we are stuck trying to define what a human is.

This concludes my post! I know... not exactly cheery. Sorry! However, I do have a really encouraging and super neat video for you to check out on You Tube. Its called El-Zabbaleen. I believe the video is in two parts though, so make sure you watch both!