Hey! Another day in the sun. lol. I have pretty solid tan lines. Well, right now they are solid burn lines. Actually both. It goes white, red, orange. Although the line between red and orange isn't really a line...
Anyways, today was pretty sweet. Kids do not wake up early. I woke up at 7:15 and went out for half an hour. There was a really funny sign trying to make people choose their destiny, but also telling them that their destiny is to have a clean comunity, so choose that destiny.
The kids found our house. Oh no!
We got a new member of our team for two weeks. A nutritionist came to town (because there wasn't one here already) and will be doing some fun, educational, interactive games and cooking with them. She should take a bit of pressure away from our planning. Hopefully. lol.
M(?) is so much like TL. We just had an hour long workout to a DVD of his. Hiphop abs or something. It was ridiculous (especially because we don't have weights M(?) was using water bottles and I had cans of soup) and the funny thing is that a bunch of things near the end were things me and TL did when we worked out back in Asia. I wonder how TL likes his steaks cooked... M(?) has them 'blue'. I just asked and he has never seen Vampire Diaries. lol.
Registering for courses is terrible. lol. I didn't realize STAT 2507 was available in the fall until now and that BIOC2300 would mean a lot less work then CHEM2103, but things are kinda set for the most part, so I may be able to switch the STAT classes, but it may be a night course. >.> Grrrr. FILM. Grrrr. But this means I can take microbio in the winter!!! =D Thank God for giving me awesome time tickets for registering even though I didn't fully take advantage of it aapparently. lol
There are a bunch of small flowers around our houses and even though they are so small, there are so many of them that a couple days ago I stepped outside and breathed in and it was magical. lol. So many small flowers that it smelled like a whole field of fully in bloom flowers. Also, a couple years ago SB was worrying about what I remember to be a large white flowering plant that could cause some bad things to happen that might look like another flowering plant but HUGE. I think there are a bunch of them around here. I've seen small ones and HUGE ones that look a bit different.
Ya. I'll ttyl. I feel like I had something really important or something that I thought I should really share with you guys, but after the last few hours of pulling hair and trying to cram all these classes in I am fried. lol. Why does the winter semester always look better..? >.>
Ttyl.
D.Fa
PS!!!!! Most Awesome thing today!!!! The little girl I shared my bracelet with asked me to tell her again!! =DDDDDD So good! Praying for her!
13.7.11
12.7.11
私は野球が大好きですよ。
Hey! Today's prayer walk? fail. lol... I kinda slept past my alarm... At 7:45 I jumped up and went to start breakfast. I prayed for my team (family!) while in the kitchen. I figure that counts as praying for the town by praying for increased service from us and jsut doing more for the people of the town.
I cooked breakfast for them again, except this time I cooked eggs too. Yesterday they took what I cooked and then made eggs. >.> I made like a delicious failed frittata with mushrooms, green pepper, onions, ham, and brocoli. Also oatmeal and toast. There was a lot of stuff for the eggs, so, we will have more tomorrow! Yay! Less prep time for tomorrow's breakfast. lol.
Another slow morning.
The rest of our delivery..? Bread and real meat!!!
Another crazy afternoon.
Yesterday the girls cooked an awesome dinner for us (scalloped potatoes and veggie stirfry. delish!), so today was our turn. We kinda cheated because we had new dinner food. lol. So, we had dinner rolls with baked chicken legs and mashed potatoes.
Then we raced of grudgingly to the evening program which so far had no turn out. I see this as an awesome oppourtunity to meet with the kids more one on one with a different dynamic. Meeting them as who we are not just camp counselor and camper. There were two people and a fast pitch softball game. They needed a couple players. I wanted to play so badly. I got to play!!!! Yuss!
This was actually the second game I've played here. Yesterday a kid invited us to a game at 5:30, which we kinda thought we were going to watch, but it turned out we were supposed to play with them, so I did, kinda as a captain shouting what play we should do. That day there were no outfeilders because there were only ten of us or so... so a lot of homeruns for 9-12 year olds. lol.
But I digress. Today's fast pitch game was completely different. Although there were a lot of good hits, they were always cut down to a double or triple with only a couple homeruns and one grandslam over the fence what?!? lol. I came home twice! but how I got to base isn't the best story. lol. A dropped third strike and a 4 ball walk... Boring. I like hitting the ball. xP
Yep. I'm even more burned. lol.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
I cooked breakfast for them again, except this time I cooked eggs too. Yesterday they took what I cooked and then made eggs. >.> I made like a delicious failed frittata with mushrooms, green pepper, onions, ham, and brocoli. Also oatmeal and toast. There was a lot of stuff for the eggs, so, we will have more tomorrow! Yay! Less prep time for tomorrow's breakfast. lol.
Another slow morning.
The rest of our delivery..? Bread and real meat!!!
Another crazy afternoon.
Yesterday the girls cooked an awesome dinner for us (scalloped potatoes and veggie stirfry. delish!), so today was our turn. We kinda cheated because we had new dinner food. lol. So, we had dinner rolls with baked chicken legs and mashed potatoes.
Then we raced of grudgingly to the evening program which so far had no turn out. I see this as an awesome oppourtunity to meet with the kids more one on one with a different dynamic. Meeting them as who we are not just camp counselor and camper. There were two people and a fast pitch softball game. They needed a couple players. I wanted to play so badly. I got to play!!!! Yuss!
This was actually the second game I've played here. Yesterday a kid invited us to a game at 5:30, which we kinda thought we were going to watch, but it turned out we were supposed to play with them, so I did, kinda as a captain shouting what play we should do. That day there were no outfeilders because there were only ten of us or so... so a lot of homeruns for 9-12 year olds. lol.
But I digress. Today's fast pitch game was completely different. Although there were a lot of good hits, they were always cut down to a double or triple with only a couple homeruns and one grandslam over the fence what?!? lol. I came home twice! but how I got to base isn't the best story. lol. A dropped third strike and a 4 ball walk... Boring. I like hitting the ball. xP
Yep. I'm even more burned. lol.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
Juillet 11
23 heure 17 minutes
Hey. Day 1 of week 2 complete.
Today was another hard one, I guess you could say. Rocks were the prop of the day. Rocks for the dog to chase after rocks for the war on the playground, ... I like using three examples, but I guess there were only two.
Anyways, ya, I just couldn't stop the rock war. Kids were throwing, kids were retaliating, kids were teasing and taunting, kids were crying and screaming, kids were on the swing, not giving a care and kids were not listening when I asked them to drop the stones and walk away.
Aside from the rocks today was okay I guess. I just don't feel satisfied with what we are doing. Right now we let them do whatever for about half an hour until everyone is there. Then we pray and 'warm up' with a lot of running games. Then we kinda drop the kids off in the playground and let them amuse themselves for the last 2.5 hours. Swinging, seesaw, tag, frandom stuff. Then we go back, pray, leave. We need a bit more. On the schedule we've been given there is 'music time' and 'story time' and 'arts and craft time' (which is tending to be used as an alternative to doing sports or playground activities, and is only actually drawing on a long piece of paper...)
Ya, the prayer walk this morning was good. It really set the day off on the right foot. I was awake, I cooked breakfast, we got there in time (the girls slept in by accident), I got to see half of the town that I hadn't seen before. Tomorrow I'll finish scoping out the other half of the town.
My real need right now is that although I'm good in the off hours, is relying on God during the chaos, just taking that second and praying, just doing it all for Him. Not just going in with that attitude and thenm (seven hours later) looking back on not having done so.
Ya.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
Hey. Day 1 of week 2 complete.
Today was another hard one, I guess you could say. Rocks were the prop of the day. Rocks for the dog to chase after rocks for the war on the playground, ... I like using three examples, but I guess there were only two.
Anyways, ya, I just couldn't stop the rock war. Kids were throwing, kids were retaliating, kids were teasing and taunting, kids were crying and screaming, kids were on the swing, not giving a care and kids were not listening when I asked them to drop the stones and walk away.
Aside from the rocks today was okay I guess. I just don't feel satisfied with what we are doing. Right now we let them do whatever for about half an hour until everyone is there. Then we pray and 'warm up' with a lot of running games. Then we kinda drop the kids off in the playground and let them amuse themselves for the last 2.5 hours. Swinging, seesaw, tag, frandom stuff. Then we go back, pray, leave. We need a bit more. On the schedule we've been given there is 'music time' and 'story time' and 'arts and craft time' (which is tending to be used as an alternative to doing sports or playground activities, and is only actually drawing on a long piece of paper...)
Ya, the prayer walk this morning was good. It really set the day off on the right foot. I was awake, I cooked breakfast, we got there in time (the girls slept in by accident), I got to see half of the town that I hadn't seen before. Tomorrow I'll finish scoping out the other half of the town.
My real need right now is that although I'm good in the off hours, is relying on God during the chaos, just taking that second and praying, just doing it all for Him. Not just going in with that attitude and thenm (seven hours later) looking back on not having done so.
Ya.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
Juillet 10
22 heure 44 minutes
Hey. You should always try to listen to what a child tells you. However, you should probably ask an adult if it's somethingimportant.
Today we planned to go to church at 3:30. M(?) heard this from a 9 or 10 year old girl who lives across the street from the church building. It turns out there is only one service. It is in English, but it is at 11am, so we kinda missed it. They are really nice girls though and I got to share my bracelet with them although there were a couple distractions. They have Bibles, but they didn't know about Jesus and know that he died on the cross to pay for our sins, our mistakes, our bad things we all do. He came to bear our sins and pay the price for them, death. They have three dogs. Snowflake likes sitting on shoes.
The rest of the day was pretty lax. A couple failed [I just about typed appointments. lol] omelettes, a pot of oatmeal, a container of yogurt, a lot of the Bible (the last four chapters of Jeremiah are very long, but there are a few awesome verses [that stood out to me this time reading them] Jer 49:12 reminded me of Jesus when he prayed that the cup might be taken from him. He didn't deserve death. [Jer 49:12 This is what the LORD says: "If those who do not deserve to drink the cup must drink it, why should you go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, but must drink it.] Jer 50-6-7 more sheep imagery [Jer 50:6-7 My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray and caused them to roam on the mountains. They wandered over mountain and hill and forgot their own resting place. Whoever found them devoured them; their enemies said, 'We are not guilty, for they sinned against the LORD, their true pasture, the LORD, the hope of their fathers.'"]) a lot of singing Japanese songs loudly, also some English, Pokemon, a movie with the girls, not much.
We still have 5 weeks left though and ministry is already starting! =D So, ya.
Some of the kids have found the girls' house. lol.
This week I'm gonna try to have a prayer walk each morning. Let's see how this goes. I pray that God would really give me a heart for these people and children and open my eyes to their needs.
D.Fa
Hey. You should always try to listen to what a child tells you. However, you should probably ask an adult if it's somethingimportant.
Today we planned to go to church at 3:30. M(?) heard this from a 9 or 10 year old girl who lives across the street from the church building. It turns out there is only one service. It is in English, but it is at 11am, so we kinda missed it. They are really nice girls though and I got to share my bracelet with them although there were a couple distractions. They have Bibles, but they didn't know about Jesus and know that he died on the cross to pay for our sins, our mistakes, our bad things we all do. He came to bear our sins and pay the price for them, death. They have three dogs. Snowflake likes sitting on shoes.
The rest of the day was pretty lax. A couple failed [I just about typed appointments. lol] omelettes, a pot of oatmeal, a container of yogurt, a lot of the Bible (the last four chapters of Jeremiah are very long, but there are a few awesome verses [that stood out to me this time reading them] Jer 49:12 reminded me of Jesus when he prayed that the cup might be taken from him. He didn't deserve death. [Jer 49:12 This is what the LORD says: "If those who do not deserve to drink the cup must drink it, why should you go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, but must drink it.] Jer 50-6-7 more sheep imagery [Jer 50:6-7 My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray and caused them to roam on the mountains. They wandered over mountain and hill and forgot their own resting place. Whoever found them devoured them; their enemies said, 'We are not guilty, for they sinned against the LORD, their true pasture, the LORD, the hope of their fathers.'"]) a lot of singing Japanese songs loudly, also some English, Pokemon, a movie with the girls, not much.
We still have 5 weeks left though and ministry is already starting! =D So, ya.
Some of the kids have found the girls' house. lol.
This week I'm gonna try to have a prayer walk each morning. Let's see how this goes. I pray that God would really give me a heart for these people and children and open my eyes to their needs.
D.Fa
9.7.11
Stolen from an email.
Hey! Today was pretty boring. lol.
Saturday. The first really weekend since we got here. We all wanted to sleep in, so I did. I woke up at 10:30ish. It was really sunny outside.
First I threw together a meal. Oatmeal, yogurt, nurtigrain bars, milk? I actually don't remember. lol. I read some more of the Parables book. Today was a chapter on 'Good news for the needy' about how Jesus came to heal the sick, to seek the lost, to save those who really need it. The main parables in this chapter were from Luke 15, the lost sheep, lost coin and prodigal son. Jesus and God put in every effort to look for the lost one and rejoice when a sinner repents. Jesus wasn't hanging out with sinners instead of Pharisees because He didn't care about sin, but that He saw the need of the people and came to pay their debts and bring them back. It seemed a lot of the time that Jesus was enemies with the Pharisees always talking back, but really, they were kind of building up religion as an idol and relying on their own righteousness not admitting they need to be forgiven, when 'all have fallen short of the glory of God'.
Anyways, I also read a bunch of stuff in the Bible while reading that book, as well as a few Psalms. Psalm 78 is pretty awesome. lol. I keep seeing that any reference to the Old Testament in the New Testament is awesome, but even a 'summary chapter' like Psalm 78 was really awesome.
Isaiah 53:6 'We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way: and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.'
In one sentence most of the four laws.
lol. With the food we have been given I have been cooking things that I never cook. Actually, so far I have only cooked things I never have. lol. Grilled cheese (I actually haven't cooked a grilled cheese until yesterday), fried potatoes and onions (which I saw my dad make with hotdogs many times), oatmeal (real oatmeal not instant (Also, we don't have a microwave in our house, the girls do, but not us)), an interesting dish that is basically scrambled eggs, but with mushrooms and onions (I saw M(?) make it with bacon for breakfast). Mmmmmm. So, it's basically an all day breakfast around here. We can have sandwiches or soup as a lunch-type meal, but with 360 eggs and 11 pounds of potatoes, it's mainly breakfast. Mmmmmm Egg Tarts. I wanna find out if I can make them somehow.
Yesterday I was trying to send an email, but the internet died on me. You see I had internet and was writing it. I lost internet. A few paragraphs later I found out. I tried getting internet over and over, but it wouldn't send. It also wouldn't save. lol. I saved the email in a word doc and put it on my USB. A few hours later I was able to borrow someone's laptop. It's a mac. lol. I can't use macs apparently. Anyways, after asking how to get to the USB I finally got to it. and it was a docx file. Not compatible. Had to get a doc converter. It didn't send me the file quickly enough. Semi-Pro (Bad movie). Sleep. Sleep-in. Do everything in my power without internet. What the..? Internet!?!? Send!
So, I'm taking today as a rest day. I'll do some ministry work tomorrow. We get to go to church! Sweet.
Yep.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
Saturday. The first really weekend since we got here. We all wanted to sleep in, so I did. I woke up at 10:30ish. It was really sunny outside.
First I threw together a meal. Oatmeal, yogurt, nurtigrain bars, milk? I actually don't remember. lol. I read some more of the Parables book. Today was a chapter on 'Good news for the needy' about how Jesus came to heal the sick, to seek the lost, to save those who really need it. The main parables in this chapter were from Luke 15, the lost sheep, lost coin and prodigal son. Jesus and God put in every effort to look for the lost one and rejoice when a sinner repents. Jesus wasn't hanging out with sinners instead of Pharisees because He didn't care about sin, but that He saw the need of the people and came to pay their debts and bring them back. It seemed a lot of the time that Jesus was enemies with the Pharisees always talking back, but really, they were kind of building up religion as an idol and relying on their own righteousness not admitting they need to be forgiven, when 'all have fallen short of the glory of God'.
Anyways, I also read a bunch of stuff in the Bible while reading that book, as well as a few Psalms. Psalm 78 is pretty awesome. lol. I keep seeing that any reference to the Old Testament in the New Testament is awesome, but even a 'summary chapter' like Psalm 78 was really awesome.
Isaiah 53:6 'We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way: and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.'
In one sentence most of the four laws.
lol. With the food we have been given I have been cooking things that I never cook. Actually, so far I have only cooked things I never have. lol. Grilled cheese (I actually haven't cooked a grilled cheese until yesterday), fried potatoes and onions (which I saw my dad make with hotdogs many times), oatmeal (real oatmeal not instant (Also, we don't have a microwave in our house, the girls do, but not us)), an interesting dish that is basically scrambled eggs, but with mushrooms and onions (I saw M(?) make it with bacon for breakfast). Mmmmmm. So, it's basically an all day breakfast around here. We can have sandwiches or soup as a lunch-type meal, but with 360 eggs and 11 pounds of potatoes, it's mainly breakfast. Mmmmmm Egg Tarts. I wanna find out if I can make them somehow.
Yesterday I was trying to send an email, but the internet died on me. You see I had internet and was writing it. I lost internet. A few paragraphs later I found out. I tried getting internet over and over, but it wouldn't send. It also wouldn't save. lol. I saved the email in a word doc and put it on my USB. A few hours later I was able to borrow someone's laptop. It's a mac. lol. I can't use macs apparently. Anyways, after asking how to get to the USB I finally got to it. and it was a docx file. Not compatible. Had to get a doc converter. It didn't send me the file quickly enough. Semi-Pro (Bad movie). Sleep. Sleep-in. Do everything in my power without internet. What the..? Internet!?!? Send!
So, I'm taking today as a rest day. I'll do some ministry work tomorrow. We get to go to church! Sweet.
Yep.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
Juillet 8
23 heure 38 minutes
It's too late. lol. I need sleep. I really need to stop writing / typing that. lol
Today was interesting. It was really just falling apart. lol. Last day of the week, I guess we all just checked out? This morning only three kids showed up in the first half hour. During that time I picked up a lot of garbage and waved to a bunch of people in their trucks as they went by (just like in Asia! You can just wave or yell hello at everybody!) I also like taking that time to pray for the kids and anything that comes to mind and sing some songs that are on my cell phone.
Ya, kids trickled in. Then the afternoon hit.
Suddenly we were three vs thirty. The girls disappeared without telling us. That was a darn stressful half hour.
Apparently our food had finally arrived. It's a really weird assortment of things.
-8L of 'DORA Syrup'
-2 Rutabegas
-6 Zuchini
-4.5 kg of Olymel Mock-Chicken
-1000 Crackers [in 2 cracker packages]
-25 lbs of Margarine [disgusting]
-4 Crowns of Brocoli
-100 lbs of Potatoes
-ham
-balogna
-sachets of coffee
-200 small packets of peanut butter, jam and miracle whip
-360 large eggs (that's 30 eggs each per week)
-a lot of yogurt
-some pappers, onions, oranges
-12kg of oatmeal
-10kg of yellow sugar
-24 boxes of nutrigrain bars
-20L of milk
-enough drink crystals to make about 130L of juice
-a lot of water, like 300L
-65L of soup
-6 packs of bacon
-ketchup and mustard packets
We got home and I guess we were kinda joking about how much food we have for two weeks, but we don't have bread, pancakes or a water machine, so it's kinda random. lol. The Isrealites didn't like the manna either.
Also, no chicken. It's all pork products. Why?
D.Fa
It's too late. lol. I need sleep. I really need to stop writing / typing that. lol
Today was interesting. It was really just falling apart. lol. Last day of the week, I guess we all just checked out? This morning only three kids showed up in the first half hour. During that time I picked up a lot of garbage and waved to a bunch of people in their trucks as they went by (just like in Asia! You can just wave or yell hello at everybody!) I also like taking that time to pray for the kids and anything that comes to mind and sing some songs that are on my cell phone.
Ya, kids trickled in. Then the afternoon hit.
Suddenly we were three vs thirty. The girls disappeared without telling us. That was a darn stressful half hour.
Apparently our food had finally arrived. It's a really weird assortment of things.
-8L of 'DORA Syrup'
-2 Rutabegas
-6 Zuchini
-4.5 kg of Olymel Mock-Chicken
-1000 Crackers [in 2 cracker packages]
-25 lbs of Margarine [disgusting]
-4 Crowns of Brocoli
-100 lbs of Potatoes
-ham
-balogna
-sachets of coffee
-200 small packets of peanut butter, jam and miracle whip
-360 large eggs (that's 30 eggs each per week)
-a lot of yogurt
-some pappers, onions, oranges
-12kg of oatmeal
-10kg of yellow sugar
-24 boxes of nutrigrain bars
-20L of milk
-enough drink crystals to make about 130L of juice
-a lot of water, like 300L
-65L of soup
-6 packs of bacon
-ketchup and mustard packets
We got home and I guess we were kinda joking about how much food we have for two weeks, but we don't have bread, pancakes or a water machine, so it's kinda random. lol. The Isrealites didn't like the manna either.
Also, no chicken. It's all pork products. Why?
D.Fa
Juillet 6
22 heure 34 minutes
So, today was day three of the summer camp and our team leader was a bit sick and couldn't really yell or anything, so A(?) was mostly in charge. She's really awesome with the kids. She's enthusiastic, loud, positive, phrases things well for children and keeps them entertained very well, but she wouldn't pray to start the day [she's muslim and it's kinda, but not reall, but kinda a Christian camp, so at the start and end we pray], so I did. Sweet. lol.
Today got pretty chaotic after lunch though. A couple 'bored' kids, a couple fights, a couple age groups in one room. About 50 kids from age 4-13. I tend to be playing with the younger kids most of the time. This means I am a horse and a swing pushing machine a lot... I'm trying to be fair to everyone by limiting my recreational help to them in those manners though. Today after I gave everyone their pushes and they still wanted more I taught them how to swing by themselves. "Legs IN. Legs OUT. Legs IN. ..." 'Now you don't need me to push you.' They really don't care, they wanted me to push them.
Camp ended early for some reason. Not a good I dea.
anyways, I was reading a bunch from KL's book 'The Parables of Jesus' and the whole sowing the word of God then waiting as the seed mysteriously grows. Even Jesus didn't force the word to grow or shove it down anyone's throat. He sowed broadly and had mixed reactions, but the seed that was sown was not destroyed, it just lay asleep sometimes. Spreading the word doesn't get immediate responses, you need faith in God growing the seeds in their lives. I'm praying for A(?), SC, RL, KC, KFA, JC, S(?) that God is really planting seeds and helping them grow, whether they realize it or not.
D.Fa
PS. No Food til Friday!
PPS. Drawing time with the kids is awesome, but you end up dying so many different ways. lol.
So, today was day three of the summer camp and our team leader was a bit sick and couldn't really yell or anything, so A(?) was mostly in charge. She's really awesome with the kids. She's enthusiastic, loud, positive, phrases things well for children and keeps them entertained very well, but she wouldn't pray to start the day [she's muslim and it's kinda, but not reall, but kinda a Christian camp, so at the start and end we pray], so I did. Sweet. lol.
Today got pretty chaotic after lunch though. A couple 'bored' kids, a couple fights, a couple age groups in one room. About 50 kids from age 4-13. I tend to be playing with the younger kids most of the time. This means I am a horse and a swing pushing machine a lot... I'm trying to be fair to everyone by limiting my recreational help to them in those manners though. Today after I gave everyone their pushes and they still wanted more I taught them how to swing by themselves. "Legs IN. Legs OUT. Legs IN. ..." 'Now you don't need me to push you.' They really don't care, they wanted me to push them.
Camp ended early for some reason. Not a good I dea.
anyways, I was reading a bunch from KL's book 'The Parables of Jesus' and the whole sowing the word of God then waiting as the seed mysteriously grows. Even Jesus didn't force the word to grow or shove it down anyone's throat. He sowed broadly and had mixed reactions, but the seed that was sown was not destroyed, it just lay asleep sometimes. Spreading the word doesn't get immediate responses, you need faith in God growing the seeds in their lives. I'm praying for A(?), SC, RL, KC, KFA, JC, S(?) that God is really planting seeds and helping them grow, whether they realize it or not.
D.Fa
PS. No Food til Friday!
PPS. Drawing time with the kids is awesome, but you end up dying so many different ways. lol.
Juillet 5 de post
22 heure 24 minutes
What's up? The sun... >.> I want to see the stars. There is no light polution here [well, a lot less anyways]. I mean, I'm beside a river and there's like 600 people here, how bad can it be? It's nowhere near the size of Ottawa, or even Nepean for that matter and we are surrounded by forest, sot other small towns. Yet, I am far too tired to stay up past sunset and that seems to be pretty late around here...
Guess what? M(?) is Asian. lol But he's a really dark Asian, he doesn't have an 'Asian nose', he speaks French [he has no Asian accent] mainly, I could mistake him for being Cree easily, but apparently he's Lao/Thai. And he acts like TL. He did some karate, he's always doing something funny/random, he dances for no reason, he watches terrible TV dramas (In this case True Blood not Vampire Diaries)(I should ask him about Vampire Diaries.) he likes children, [he is fine with openly discussing bathroom topics], etc... I miss TL and our long text conversations.
Today was another fun day. Names are kinda hard when you get 20 new ones in 10 minutes and have to know them all despite not spending time with them. I was playing with the young kids all day. Our days are split, mornings (9-12) for kids 5-8, afternoons (1-4) for older kids 9-12 and some evenings (7-9:30?) for 13+.
I met two kids today and yesterday that remind me of some people. CMS reminds me of JW, but actually is probably more like a mix of JW and her friend G(?). [I am talking about the athletic high school girl and her friend that go to YF, not the other JWs I know. lol] There was also this super awesome roller hockey playing three year old who reminded me of youth pastor JW's one year old.
Our food isn't getting here until tomorrow.
I'm gonna go shave.
I've mainly been praying for my family members today.
Me and the guys watched some more Modern Family. I hope we become more of a family. I know we are.
When two four year olds run to kick a soccer ball. Cute.
D.Fa
What's up? The sun... >.> I want to see the stars. There is no light polution here [well, a lot less anyways]. I mean, I'm beside a river and there's like 600 people here, how bad can it be? It's nowhere near the size of Ottawa, or even Nepean for that matter and we are surrounded by forest, sot other small towns. Yet, I am far too tired to stay up past sunset and that seems to be pretty late around here...
Guess what? M(?) is Asian. lol But he's a really dark Asian, he doesn't have an 'Asian nose', he speaks French [he has no Asian accent] mainly, I could mistake him for being Cree easily, but apparently he's Lao/Thai. And he acts like TL. He did some karate, he's always doing something funny/random, he dances for no reason, he watches terrible TV dramas (In this case True Blood not Vampire Diaries)(I should ask him about Vampire Diaries.) he likes children, [he is fine with openly discussing bathroom topics], etc... I miss TL and our long text conversations.
Today was another fun day. Names are kinda hard when you get 20 new ones in 10 minutes and have to know them all despite not spending time with them. I was playing with the young kids all day. Our days are split, mornings (9-12) for kids 5-8, afternoons (1-4) for older kids 9-12 and some evenings (7-9:30?) for 13+.
I met two kids today and yesterday that remind me of some people. CMS reminds me of JW, but actually is probably more like a mix of JW and her friend G(?). [I am talking about the athletic high school girl and her friend that go to YF, not the other JWs I know. lol] There was also this super awesome roller hockey playing three year old who reminded me of youth pastor JW's one year old.
Our food isn't getting here until tomorrow.
I'm gonna go shave.
I've mainly been praying for my family members today.
Me and the guys watched some more Modern Family. I hope we become more of a family. I know we are.
When two four year olds run to kick a soccer ball. Cute.
D.Fa
Entry for Juillet 4
23 heure 4 minutes
Hey! Happy 4th of July! (I only just realized it was.)
Anyways, today was the first day of the camp and it was pretty awesome. So many amazing kids all different and unique and made just the way God has made them. God loves them all and I really want to be able to share that with them this summer.
I'm being way more OCD about cleaning things than I usually am. lol. I mean I swept the whole skating rink in the arena/complex thingee. (That is where we are doing the camp for now. There is a playground and outdoor hockey rink / basketball court, a baseball diamond, lots of construction and a gym, restaurant and arena.)
So, today I was having a lot of fun with the young kids. I met a bunch. At first there weren't so many, but there were more later. I cleaned pretty much the whole arena. Later the older kids (two who look pretty asian, not only because of their dark eyes and skin color, but also because of their dyed [with blond naturally dark brown/black] hair [Also, one of them has the same name as one guy I know who is asian.]) I ended up mainly doing more cleaning. There were about 25 or 30 kids in the afternoon ranging from the age of 6 to 12. They mainly took care of themselves, so I thought cleaning up and making things safer was a good idea. We went to the playground bor a bit (did I mention today was frigid? like 9'C...) and we swung a lot. I pushed.
And (It's been raining a lot) a girl asked me "You know what Jesus is doing when it rains? He's cleaning the Earth." Cute. I'm, so glad that I got to talk about Jesus today. Honestly.
WCF is working really hard.
Still no food or furniture.
A(?) is really aweosme with kids.
D.Fa
My boogers are black due to the dust from sweeping.
Hey! Happy 4th of July! (I only just realized it was.)
Anyways, today was the first day of the camp and it was pretty awesome. So many amazing kids all different and unique and made just the way God has made them. God loves them all and I really want to be able to share that with them this summer.
I'm being way more OCD about cleaning things than I usually am. lol. I mean I swept the whole skating rink in the arena/complex thingee. (That is where we are doing the camp for now. There is a playground and outdoor hockey rink / basketball court, a baseball diamond, lots of construction and a gym, restaurant and arena.)
So, today I was having a lot of fun with the young kids. I met a bunch. At first there weren't so many, but there were more later. I cleaned pretty much the whole arena. Later the older kids (two who look pretty asian, not only because of their dark eyes and skin color, but also because of their dyed [with blond naturally dark brown/black] hair [Also, one of them has the same name as one guy I know who is asian.]) I ended up mainly doing more cleaning. There were about 25 or 30 kids in the afternoon ranging from the age of 6 to 12. They mainly took care of themselves, so I thought cleaning up and making things safer was a good idea. We went to the playground bor a bit (did I mention today was frigid? like 9'C...) and we swung a lot. I pushed.
And (It's been raining a lot) a girl asked me "You know what Jesus is doing when it rains? He's cleaning the Earth." Cute. I'm, so glad that I got to talk about Jesus today. Honestly.
WCF is working really hard.
Still no food or furniture.
A(?) is really aweosme with kids.
D.Fa
My boogers are black due to the dust from sweeping.
B-Log entry Juillet 3
23 heures, 12 minutes.
Hey! I guess we are back to the 'Log B', but whatever. I may end up able to type this up tomorrow on someone else's computer or something, but anyway it really doesn't matter.
I'm really really restless and having real culture shock. This is not Ottawa vs Quebec. This is East Asia vs Northern Quebec. It's also me having unreasonable expectations. It's also a completely different situation. Like, I really want everyone on my team to be bonding and sharing and praying for each other and working hard for the Lord and being on fire for Him, but honestly I want now (Day 2) to have the exact same team dynamic as the last day in East Asia. [A little unreasonable...]
Anytime anyone goes off alone, I follow. Stick together at all times! (I almost never broke that rule [in East Asia] and it always felt strange when I did [people stare more when the white guy is alone. lol]) I also feel really weird about the lack of God in all of this. I mean in Asia, even though it didn't sound the same, we still prayed together, we shared in the joys, we worked together through the hard times. We were always in close comunity. We had each other, God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. No internet, facebook, email, nothing. I miss the community we had then. I miss how open it was, but I guess it was a process, so maybe, I should be the one starting the conversations, asking questions [I really miss the questions. lol], sharing about what happened in East Asia and just sparking the fire, yo.
Pray for me that even in the differences, I can hold onto God and follow Him always.
Step out in fire yo.
D.Fa
Today we mainly got out there, looked at what we were working with, checked out the town a bit and walked around to see some folks and meet some kids. The dogs and the kids travel in one pack. It's kinda odd. lol. I feel even in the rest days that we should be doing something more than naps, laptops, Modern Family (although that's how me and my house mates bonded) and 'Shawshank Redemption'. >.>
Hey! I guess we are back to the 'Log B', but whatever. I may end up able to type this up tomorrow on someone else's computer or something, but anyway it really doesn't matter.
I'm really really restless and having real culture shock. This is not Ottawa vs Quebec. This is East Asia vs Northern Quebec. It's also me having unreasonable expectations. It's also a completely different situation. Like, I really want everyone on my team to be bonding and sharing and praying for each other and working hard for the Lord and being on fire for Him, but honestly I want now (Day 2) to have the exact same team dynamic as the last day in East Asia. [A little unreasonable...]
Anytime anyone goes off alone, I follow. Stick together at all times! (I almost never broke that rule [in East Asia] and it always felt strange when I did [people stare more when the white guy is alone. lol]) I also feel really weird about the lack of God in all of this. I mean in Asia, even though it didn't sound the same, we still prayed together, we shared in the joys, we worked together through the hard times. We were always in close comunity. We had each other, God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. No internet, facebook, email, nothing. I miss the community we had then. I miss how open it was, but I guess it was a process, so maybe, I should be the one starting the conversations, asking questions [I really miss the questions. lol], sharing about what happened in East Asia and just sparking the fire, yo.
Pray for me that even in the differences, I can hold onto God and follow Him always.
Step out in fire yo.
D.Fa
Today we mainly got out there, looked at what we were working with, checked out the town a bit and walked around to see some folks and meet some kids. The dogs and the kids travel in one pack. It's kinda odd. lol. I feel even in the rest days that we should be doing something more than naps, laptops, Modern Family (although that's how me and my house mates bonded) and 'Shawshank Redemption'. >.>
7.7.11
From the NQ
Forget what I said earlier. I have internet again, but don't expect much. lol.
Today was hard. lol. I'm dying... I have pushed far too many swings.
Today someone found someone else's dog on the way to camp and so we had a dog (named Beiber) who was the cutest thing ever at the camp, but not inside. He was tied up for a while, but when we went outside to the playground we brought him with us. He's only a month and a half old husky puppy. I love him.
Yo. There are so many dogs around the town and I'm an animal person, so I keep petting them and they keep following me. The kids too. They are trying very hard to follow us. This one girl is trying very hard to figure out where we live. The good thing is that I actually don't know how to describe where we live. It's a trailer..? It's at the edge of the town by the teepee..?
I got burned again today. By my arch enemy, the sun.
The kids are all hilarious. Today we had a three-year-old and he was a bundle of joy when he was happy, but he kida threw a couple tantrums and could not tell me anything because he was three. >.>
Seriously though, the river is awesome and amazing. So beautiful. There was a chair on the beach which I thought was cool. I hope my cell phone is a good enough camera.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
Today was hard. lol. I'm dying... I have pushed far too many swings.
Today someone found someone else's dog on the way to camp and so we had a dog (named Beiber) who was the cutest thing ever at the camp, but not inside. He was tied up for a while, but when we went outside to the playground we brought him with us. He's only a month and a half old husky puppy. I love him.
Yo. There are so many dogs around the town and I'm an animal person, so I keep petting them and they keep following me. The kids too. They are trying very hard to follow us. This one girl is trying very hard to figure out where we live. The good thing is that I actually don't know how to describe where we live. It's a trailer..? It's at the edge of the town by the teepee..?
I got burned again today. By my arch enemy, the sun.
The kids are all hilarious. Today we had a three-year-old and he was a bundle of joy when he was happy, but he kida threw a couple tantrums and could not tell me anything because he was three. >.>
Seriously though, the river is awesome and amazing. So beautiful. There was a chair on the beach which I thought was cool. I hope my cell phone is a good enough camera.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
5.7.11
Weekly Update #1
Hey guys! My laptop refuses to connect consistently with the internet and so I will have less than I thought after the first day, but still way way more then I planned there to be. Anyways, I will try to keep in touch at least on a weekly basis (this is both my telling you why I haven't been updating and also telling you that I won't be. lol. Although I will be keeping daily entries in my Log B to type up when I get home).
I've been playing a lot of guitar and watching a lot of movies. Tonight is our first 13+ evening event.
Anyways, the kids here (4-12) are all awesome (lol), but it's like an all day full body workout or daycare sometimes. lol. Carrying kids all over the place, running and chasing them, doing pushups with them, playing the games with them, trying to get them to do what we want. It's sometimes a challenge and after the first two days I'm kinda feeling it. lol A realy awesome thing though is that today (we are trying to get organized, but yesterday we just had a full day free for all) we prayed with the kids a quick prayer right at the beginning and ending. Sweet.
Pray that we can continue strong and not burn out. Pray that we take time to rest and that we are able to become a family. (I have definitely been speaking as if we are a family and they keep laughing at me... lol.) Pray for the kids that through our service here and through conversations (although we haven't been told to do anything or not) that Christ would be proclaimed and that everything is for his glory.
Today we finally had an awesome blue sky and sunny day. It's been rainy everyday since we got here. Today was great though. The clouds were awesome. The temperature was amazing and we had a lot of fun with the kids. Yesterday was really cold.
Ya, we are having a bunch of food shipped in for us. We thought it would have come yesterday, but it's coming tomorrow apparently, so the money they gave us for 'just in case' won't all be gone.
Ya.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
I've been playing a lot of guitar and watching a lot of movies. Tonight is our first 13+ evening event.
Anyways, the kids here (4-12) are all awesome (lol), but it's like an all day full body workout or daycare sometimes. lol. Carrying kids all over the place, running and chasing them, doing pushups with them, playing the games with them, trying to get them to do what we want. It's sometimes a challenge and after the first two days I'm kinda feeling it. lol A realy awesome thing though is that today (we are trying to get organized, but yesterday we just had a full day free for all) we prayed with the kids a quick prayer right at the beginning and ending. Sweet.
Pray that we can continue strong and not burn out. Pray that we take time to rest and that we are able to become a family. (I have definitely been speaking as if we are a family and they keep laughing at me... lol.) Pray for the kids that through our service here and through conversations (although we haven't been told to do anything or not) that Christ would be proclaimed and that everything is for his glory.
Today we finally had an awesome blue sky and sunny day. It's been rainy everyday since we got here. Today was great though. The clouds were awesome. The temperature was amazing and we had a lot of fun with the kids. Yesterday was really cold.
Ya, we are having a bunch of food shipped in for us. We thought it would have come yesterday, but it's coming tomorrow apparently, so the money they gave us for 'just in case' won't all be gone.
Ya.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
2.7.11
I stand in awe of You.
So, you know how I don't care where I brush my teeth?
You know how I like photography?
You know how landscapes and stills are my favourite type of photography?
You know how creation and it's beauty is one of the best things ever?
You know how at sunset the lighting is perfect and the orangy warm colour is just the best?
You know how computers make people less social and more glued to their laptops?
You know how I love weather?
You know where I am going with this?
Well, I was brushing my teeth when I see this orange glow on the cabinet in the kitchen. OMG! Amazing sunset!!!! Go go go!!!!
So I ran out the door with my toothbrush, cellphone (which is a camera for the next 6 weeks), my shoes and my pajamas. Needless to say there will be many photos uploaded when I return to Ottawa (because I can't get them off my phone, because the mini SD card adapter is at home and I can't text/email them to myself because I have no service here).
It was so awesome. I could see the clouds rolling in. Then I went back to finish brushing my teeth. Then my team leader says he's going for a walk. I figure, why not? It's so nice and I'm feeling awesome about who God is and how great He is for creating all this. So, I go.
Outside my window is a teepee and a river. This is like the best thing ever. lol.
So I go out to the river and see lightning in the cloud way off to my left. Why not go closer for a better view? So, I go. I put on the song from my cellphone "I Stand in Awe of You". About halfway into the first verse the rain starts coming down. Pouring almost. So I bolt it.
Running back to my house just before the teepee *CRASH!!!!!!* lightning right above my head. What!?!?!?!?! I almost died it was so scary.
It's been pouring on and off with lightning and thunder and it is so awesome!
Creation is so complicated and majestic and awe-inspiring and out of our control despite how we try to predict it.
The stars.
A thunderstorm.
A sunset.
A field of flowers.
An extremely friendly giant wolf-like husky.
Creation is all around us and God created it and I'm in awe. I feel so blessed to be in this room right now. Way better than the rooms with bigger beds. lol. I have an awesome window view!
Ttyl.
D.Fa
You know how I like photography?
You know how landscapes and stills are my favourite type of photography?
You know how creation and it's beauty is one of the best things ever?
You know how at sunset the lighting is perfect and the orangy warm colour is just the best?
You know how computers make people less social and more glued to their laptops?
You know how I love weather?
You know where I am going with this?
Well, I was brushing my teeth when I see this orange glow on the cabinet in the kitchen. OMG! Amazing sunset!!!! Go go go!!!!
So I ran out the door with my toothbrush, cellphone (which is a camera for the next 6 weeks), my shoes and my pajamas. Needless to say there will be many photos uploaded when I return to Ottawa (because I can't get them off my phone, because the mini SD card adapter is at home and I can't text/email them to myself because I have no service here).
It was so awesome. I could see the clouds rolling in. Then I went back to finish brushing my teeth. Then my team leader says he's going for a walk. I figure, why not? It's so nice and I'm feeling awesome about who God is and how great He is for creating all this. So, I go.
Outside my window is a teepee and a river. This is like the best thing ever. lol.
So I go out to the river and see lightning in the cloud way off to my left. Why not go closer for a better view? So, I go. I put on the song from my cellphone "I Stand in Awe of You". About halfway into the first verse the rain starts coming down. Pouring almost. So I bolt it.
Running back to my house just before the teepee *CRASH!!!!!!* lightning right above my head. What!?!?!?!?! I almost died it was so scary.
It's been pouring on and off with lightning and thunder and it is so awesome!
Creation is so complicated and majestic and awe-inspiring and out of our control despite how we try to predict it.
The stars.
A thunderstorm.
A sunset.
A field of flowers.
An extremely friendly giant wolf-like husky.
Creation is all around us and God created it and I'm in awe. I feel so blessed to be in this room right now. Way better than the rooms with bigger beds. lol. I have an awesome window view!
Ttyl.
D.Fa
From Northern Quebec!
Hey guys!
We arrived safely this morning around noon and are getting set up in our houses. Apparently yesterday was a huge storm, so we just missed that. lol. It's still a bit rainy, but nothing too big. Kinda on and off showers. We are all really tried because we had to leave Ottawa so early. Ya, we had to buy groceries for today and tomorrow and it was like 120$. Like a 2lb bag of onions is 3.29 or something which compared to a 3lb back in Ottawa for 1.79 is pretty ridic. A big bottle of Fruite juice drink that is almost always on sale for a dollar back in Ottawa was selling for 5.49. >.> All the prices here are ridic expensive. lol. Not important.
We have internet in our houses although its not the best because it's wifi and we are a little far from the source, but it should be good enough. I should be able to blog instead of logging it in a notebook and transcripting it when I get back (which took forever, so I am glad about that).
Our team leader brought a guitar and I brought all my wow music that I have printed off (in the past for other reasons) from the praise team website for my church, so I hope to be praising God here musically where as in Asia I could not sing anything. xP
A team that was on the same plane we were, but going further north, had to come back. I don't know why at this moment, but they're gonna stay here a day. We're gonna be pretty tight here. lol. There are seven of us here and nine of them. There are seven beds, but I think that most of them brought sleeping bags, so we should be okay.
Stats on demographics:
724 people in the community (including 3 new borns from this week)
391 children
So, we will be working with (hopefully all of them, meaning a representative) 54% of the community directly, not to mention all their parents and some other locals that we will be talking to regularly, such as the people who helped us find housing.
So, ya pray for us. This is an update to say everything is sweet. lol.
Talk to you later. I'm gonna have a shower I think.
=D.Fa
We arrived safely this morning around noon and are getting set up in our houses. Apparently yesterday was a huge storm, so we just missed that. lol. It's still a bit rainy, but nothing too big. Kinda on and off showers. We are all really tried because we had to leave Ottawa so early. Ya, we had to buy groceries for today and tomorrow and it was like 120$. Like a 2lb bag of onions is 3.29 or something which compared to a 3lb back in Ottawa for 1.79 is pretty ridic. A big bottle of Fruite juice drink that is almost always on sale for a dollar back in Ottawa was selling for 5.49. >.> All the prices here are ridic expensive. lol. Not important.
We have internet in our houses although its not the best because it's wifi and we are a little far from the source, but it should be good enough. I should be able to blog instead of logging it in a notebook and transcripting it when I get back (which took forever, so I am glad about that).
Our team leader brought a guitar and I brought all my wow music that I have printed off (in the past for other reasons) from the praise team website for my church, so I hope to be praising God here musically where as in Asia I could not sing anything. xP
A team that was on the same plane we were, but going further north, had to come back. I don't know why at this moment, but they're gonna stay here a day. We're gonna be pretty tight here. lol. There are seven of us here and nine of them. There are seven beds, but I think that most of them brought sleeping bags, so we should be okay.
Stats on demographics:
724 people in the community (including 3 new borns from this week)
391 children
So, we will be working with (hopefully all of them, meaning a representative) 54% of the community directly, not to mention all their parents and some other locals that we will be talking to regularly, such as the people who helped us find housing.
So, ya pray for us. This is an update to say everything is sweet. lol.
Talk to you later. I'm gonna have a shower I think.
=D.Fa
Log B --> Blog
Okay. I am finished typing up my posts from East Asia. It has been a good thing looking over how God has used those six weeks and I probably still could learn more from that time. I plan to read over the notes I took in Orientation and BTs and Debreif and stuff.
Anyways, I wanted to finish posting it before I posted my Report that I sent to my supporters because of obvious spoilers. lol. But you guys have been praying for me too, so I want to give you the update too. The following is the (very long) email that took me a long time to type. lol It basically summarizes the six weeks.
"Hey!
It has just finished. I got back to Ottawa Friday night after a really long day of travelling and one of the very first things I wanted to do was to just thank all of you for the hours of prayer and supporting me so that I could go on this trip and help change lives in East Asia.
There is so much I could say and I'd be more then happy to tell you more at some point, but for the sake of time and to keep this short-ish I will mainly give generalizations and one or two specific stories. [It ended up being really long... xP but there's still so much more that happened.] Also, all names will be changed and all places either not mentioned specifically or changed. The pictures show a bit of what life was like in East Asia.
So, first was the flight from Ottawa to Vancouver. My first flight ever. It was pretty good, I watched a movie, ate, slept, read, etc. Then arrival. I get greeted by a couple other super excited people! "Welcome to Vancouver! EAP 2011!" or something like that and immediately get to meet like 15 or 20 people, get on a bus and drive away and continue meeting the rest of the students from across Canada that felt called to East Asia. We went to a Bible College a couple hours from Vancouver and there we got to spend four days getting to know everyone, getting amazing training from C4C staff, worshiped, prayed a lot for everything that would happen including the goals for this year's project, got to find out where we were going and who was on our 'family' for the project (the people we would be spending a large amount of time with in the city we went to), had Bible studies, had a lot of stuff happen. It was really awesome.
Then the day came. We all went to the airport and said our goodbyes on the bus. The 50 or so people going were split into 5 different families and for the same reasons of prolonging the ministry in Asia and protecting the students we had to ignore the other families while in the airport and on the plane. It was a long flight 11 hours or something. We flew around by Alaska and crossed the Ocean there. Russia has some crazy mountains.
We landed in the capital. Got our bags, had Burger King for lunch (much to my dismay. I wanted Asian food. xP), met a Long Term staff member who is working there now, got on a bus and drove away. Our city was about an hour or two away, so it wasn't that bad, but because of time changes and stuff we all slept a bit on the bus. There were eight students, one intern and two staff couples and their two babies in our family. I really got to bond with them over family diners, fun time, just hanging out after a long day, playing Frisbee, etc. and I really feel like they are my brothers and sisters now, which we are in Jesus.
Ya, so, we were actually in a city where the ministry hadn't been established yet. For us this meant that we were starting with very little background information and nothing permanent had been set up yet. We actually didn't even have signed contracts with a school when we arrived. Without a contract we didn't have classes on campus and we didn't live in student dorms. We actually lived in a hotel placed in the center of the city. It was nice (especially now that I realize that if we were in dorms we'd end up at only one end of the city). About class: we still had it. God placed a Christian teacher in this city and the long term staff had already connected with her. She agreed to help us out by teaching us for a couple hours 3 or 4 times each week, until we got a contract signed. We met at McDonald's each day and she connected some of us with her students. She really had a heart for the great commission and reaching her students with the gospel. We never ended up getting a contract, but she stayed with us the whole time and we were really thankful for her and everything she did for us. She was a great encouragement to us. Seeing how on fire she was for following Jesus even in Asia.
So for the first part of our ministry work because it was a new city we were also scoping out the area, gathering information and getting adjusted. At the same time we started with the ministry by walking up to students to find out if they could speak some English, learn a bit about them and get their contact information so that we could call them back later. This was Phase 1 ministry.
For me personally, Phase 1 was a slow start. I was going out by my own strength and not making much or any progress. I was also having bad attitudes towards doing ministry work and I wasn't really connecting with God by having solid quiet times of prayer and listening to Him. Nearing the end of Phase 1, one of my brothers really helped me out. He told me more about quiet time, his own personal struggles in ministry and how relying on the Holy Spirit for everything really is the only way we can do anything. The last day before we were going to move onto Phase 2 I was feeling really bad again. I felt that I had not done enough and at the same time felt useless. After class that day was quiet time. I ended up looking over John 14. While on project we had Inductive Bible studies of John 13-17, one chapter each week. So I started to analyze the chapter, looking for repeating words, seeing key ideas, just looking for what God had placed in this chapter. While doing this my attitude really changed. God's word really pumped me up for going out and doing His work.
So we went to a cafeteria, me and one other guy. I was at about 14 contacts of the 25 we 'should have made.' Well, my partner said that he would not be doing any of the talking unless I was completely speechless. He basically made me go alone. However, I prayed for the spirit to fill me and to guide us to a bunch of English speaking students. What happened? God led us to 8 students in an hour and a half. Even though I couldn't do it, God could. There is no way I actually expected to get all those contacts in the two hours before Phase 2 started. Praise the Lord. By stepping out in faith and relying on the Spirit, God provided and got the job done.
So, we met back at the hotel and had 'business time', a time where we plan the next couple days, have a training lesson, pray, good stuff like that. Then Phase 2 started. We didn't have phone cards or anything, but we had 5 cell phones for the staff and intern, so we used those phones to make appointments for the day ahead. We would do this each day and if they were busy when we called (although they would pick up even if they had class) we could schedule them later that week. We would often have between 3 to 5 meetings with our national friends each day. Usually we would eat a meal, go to a coffee shop, walk around or just hang out for about an hour or so. Generally we'd get to know them better and get into some spiritual topics. I don't think this ever stopped us, but the point of phase two was to gauge how spiritually interested they were and (just in case) see if they had any connections to the government before really sharing the gospel.
We got to know a bunch of the students and really become friends. We'd always encourage our friends to bring their friends to the meetings and God really used that a number of times to bring people into contact with us. By the second meeting with a student, we'd try to get a transition to a gospel presentation. This often went through the topic of holidays, or books, or weekends, sometimes just "I was wondering, do you believe in God?", but in any case the gospel was spread and many students were very interested and prayed to receive Christ. After ever single spiritual conversation I'd just be so happy. Seeing their eyes light up as the truth is told to ears who have never heard it. Seeing people genuinely interested in talking more about God. Seeing lives transformed.
One time though, me and one of the staff members on our family met up with this second year student, who I will call Tall. His English wasn't the best, but after meeting with him, we went to his dorm to talk. We ended up on the topic of difficulties in the world. He said he believed in himself and that people can solve the problems in the world. The problem is that humans make mistakes, people fall short of perfection. *Gospel presentation*. We used a booklet that had both an English and 'East Asian' translation of various Bible verses and showed that Christianity is not just 'a western thing'. We shared a lot with him, but because his English wasn't the best, he said that he couldn't explain to us what he thought about the points in the booklet. He said that his mother used to tell him about God and that he could believe that God existed. We gave him a couple websites written in 'East Asian' that explained more about the gospel and who Jesus is, but we had to leave. He was going to the capital city the following week and was going to stay there for a year. He said he would practice English very hard so that he would be able to communicate with us.
Walking back to our hotel I was overcome with this feeling. Tears kept pouring out of my eyes and the more I thought about him the more I cried. That was the last time we got to see him. There's so much more that we could have done. He could have been saved. He could have received Jesus into his life and claim the forgiveness of sin, love of God, and the personal relationship offered by Jesus' death on the cross. I guess God showed me a bit of what He feels for the students in East Asia. Students who don't even acknowledge His existence possibly because they have just never heard about Him, and there are millions of these students in Asia. I had been praying that God would reveal to me how He sees people and I think that He revealed part of it to me in this situation. I just needed to trust in God's plan for Tall's life. The seed was planted by his mother years ago, we got to water it, and somewhere down the road God will use someone else in his life to continue growing him and bringing him back to Himself.
Phase 3 was sharing the gospel with spiritually interested students. Really, all the phases overlapped. If a contact moved from one phase to another, you wouldn't just stop talking to them until the next phase started, you would continue helping them grow towards knowing God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
One thing I learned this summer was that God's plans are always the best. I saw that whenever my planning failed, God had a better plan for that time. One day I had a Phase 2 appointment set up. About 15 minutes passed and my friend didn't show up, so we decided to do some Phase 1 work. We went around and met a couple more guys, one named New. A week later we met up with him and two of his friends, Rabbit and Wilson. The conversation led into spiritual topics. Just talking about East Asia and how people don't help someone if they are hit by traffic because of all the hospital bills or how others will look at them, I felt that I should share the parable of the Good Samaritan with them and from there we were into a spiritual conversation. My partner shared a drawing of two cliffs and the uncrossable separation between them. Next he drew us (literally the 5 of us, Rabbit with a bow in her hair, me tall and with glasses, etc.) on one side. Next the characteristics defining the humans on the first cliff (imperfect, sometimes loving, sometimes good, mistakes, sin, etc.) and the other side, God (holy, perfect, unconditional love, etc.). He then explained that there is nothing we can do to cross this gap (an analogy of swimming to Canada from Asia was often used to explain this point). Next, talking about Jesus and what he has done, a cross was drawn in the middle, bridging the gap and sin was crossed out on the human side. Rabbit was very interested. Later that night we passed her contact info to one of our sisters. Next week the three of us met up with those three again and they brought three more friends. The two girls (Rabbit and our sister) went to a different table (we met at KFC each time) and she shared the gospel using the 'Have you heard of the four spiritual laws?' bilingual English / East Asian booklet and her East Asian language skills. We kept distracting the other five and had a somewhat spiritual conversation while the Rabbit was listening about the gospel and praying to receive Christ. When we were all done, Rabbit was so excited she came up to us and told us that she was our sister now! She was really excited to share with her parents and friends back home during an upcoming holiday. None of that would have happened if the first guy had shown up, if we had just done nothing for that hour, or if we had just done anything other than Phase 1 work, but God led us to New and brought Rabbit to our meeting.
Phase 4 was about follow-up with new Christians and going through some discipleship materials with them. I got to see one guy come to know Christ this summer, but I definitely wouldn't have guessed at first that we would have shared the gospel with him. Actually, I met him, let's call him Moped, on the day of rest before phase 2 began. I was struggling to take a day of rest in faith because of my 14 contacts, but in the end I just gave up the day and asked that God would still be with me and empowering me. I really saw that God is always at work, whether or not we are. So that night we were playing Frisbee by some student dorms and Moped came and played with us for a bit. I got his information. Without doing anything, God got me a contact. While I was resting, God was still working. The thing was that his English wasn't great, so I didn't call him for a while. I went through my 'better' English contacts and ended up calling him and going with a staff member. We talked for a bit with him and his friend. I think he said that his parents were somewhat Buddhist. We got into the gospel, but we went through it really slowly, letting them catch each word and fully understand what we were saying. He was really happy about it and was actually pushing his friend to believe in God too. We gave them time to think through this and we gave them the websites. The next week we met up again and this time we shared the booklet with them and he was ready to pray and receive Christ into his life. My partner had to go to another meeting, but I stayed and went through the back of the booklet and I tried setting up a time to meet again. He was actually going to be gone a long time. It was Monday, but he was leaving on Wednesday to go home for the long weekend and wouldn't be back until Wednesday. We couldn't meet on Tuesday. Each day I'd think about him and pray for him. When he finally got back we met up. This was on the last Thursday before we left the city on Sunday to go to Debriefing in the capital city. We met with the two of them again and his friend had some questions about the two circles with the chairs in them in the booklet from the week before. The one with yourself on the chair and Christ outside the circle (a non-Christian who has not asked Jesus to come into their life) and the circle with Christ on the chair and self at the foot of the chair (a life with Jesus in control and self submitting to him). He thought he was neither. He actually thought his life was more like the first, but with Christ somewhere in his life. He wasn't willing to surrender control right now though. He said he needed to believe in himself right now. Anyways, me and Moped started going into the first discipleship follow-up lesson. It was mainly about how when you receive Christ into your life He is now in you, you have eternal life and there is nothing that can separate you from Him, no one that can separate you from His love. He really got this point and the whole children of God thing made him really smile too. I gave him a notebook with the booklet's material hand-written in it and some verses. I'm so glad that I got to see Moped connect and I really want to keep him in my prayers and see him grow. I also want to see him speak God's truth into his friend's life. They asked me to give them English names when they found out that their friend had one. I decided to name them after two of the apostles, two that were brothers. I named them brothers because they will be brothers once his friend is reborn into Christ's family.
While on the trip I missed church a bit. We had a couple hours together on Saturdays to listen to a sermon from an ipod, have communion together, listen to personal testimonies, praise God (without singing) and focus on the God's word. It was pretty great though. God revealed to me more about my own testimony when it was my turn to share. I just couldn't wait to sing tomorrow in a congregation with a bunch of people when I got home. xP It really reminds us that praise and worship is not all about the music, but about God and what He has done and showing our appreciation. A student who had a Christian grandmother asked us what worship was. Although music is the first thing that comes to my head, it is by far the only thing. There are so many ways we got to worship on this trip.
Ya, what else can I say? We ate a lot of greasy food, baked goods, and Korean BBQ. We went to some parks, karaoke, some shopping, and McDonald's. We rode on small buses to get around the university city and took a taxi to town. We had two birthdays while we were there. There was one on one discipleing from the staff members. We had a lot of prayer walks and prayer time. We had a block of guy/girl time each week. We eventually got an international phone plan, but I only called home once. It was an amazing time and I really learned the importance of prayer and being always in God's presence; I learned the importance of good quiet time; I learned that taking steps of faith is always rewarded; I learned a bit of East Asian; I learned again that a church is not a building; I learned about accepting others as they are because they are a unique creation and loved in God's eyes; I learned a lot. I'm going to miss my friends, but I got their email addresses so I should be able to stay in contact at least a bit.
Last week we boarded a bus and went back to the capital. We stayed in a hotel with all the other families and had a lot of time for reflection, sharing, thinking about the future, preparing for reverse culture shock as well as a lot of other things. We also got the statistics for all the things we were praying for. This year in East Asia there were 47 students and 6 staff members. We were praying for 400 gospel presentations, 100 people praying to receive Christ and ten thousand dollars to support the great commission in East Asia. We ended up talking to about 1950 different groups of students, we had about 1500 spiritual conversations, shared the gospel 463 times, sharing again 109 times and we saw 101 new brothers and sisters come to know Jesus as their personal savior. Praise the Lord. Also from just the 50 of us 8200$ were donated to East Asia, considering we are all students or staff members that's quite a bit. We also got to start discipleing about two thirds of the new Christians, went through the Spirit filled life booklet, and shared the Jesus film a number of times.
There's so many people in Asia who haven't heard the gospel, but thanks to you and many others, many students have now heard for the first time, many have heard for a second time and some have already started a relationship with God. We need to continue praying for these things that have happened. Praying that every seed that was planted would begin to grow and be watered. Praying that each new Christian brother and sister would be actively involved in a community, growing in their faith and love for God. Praying that they won't be persecuted for their faith and that they will remain life-long labourers for Jesus. Since we never got a contract to get into a school, there is a chance that we won't have a long term team there next year. Pray that the friends we made would be followed up with and that even without us there that they could be spiritually multiplying in Asia. Also pray for the future missions in Asia. This year we were praying that within two years that of the 50 of us that went on project, that 20 of us would return on a longer term trip for a year or two or do a trip in Canada to help out other campuses. We were also praying that in four years that ten of us would become staff members. In the end though, we want to see the national students be in charge of reaching out to other students in East Asia, so pray for them too. There are actually starting to be a bunch of people going to Central Asia from East Asia and a prayer that we have is that by 2020 East Asia would be the largest missionary sending area. People from Canada can't go to Central Asia easily, but if they are from East Asia it is much easier. By supporting us, we support them and in turn they reach out to another part of the world that we can't go to.
I wanted to let you know now that I am definitely considering returning next year on project as I have seen so many things happen in the hearts of students there and I grew so much. I also want to be doing more at Carleton this year and really need to rely more on the Holy Spirit's empowerment. Also, in two weeks I am leaving Ottawa to go to Northern Quebec to work as a camp counsellor in Native communities. So, keep me in your prayers and if you didn't know already you can follow what is happening in my life by stalking my blog: Incomplete Composition on blogspot. (www.incompletecomposition.blogspot.com) I post almost everyday. While I was gone I wrote a page each day and intend to type them all up before I leave. They should be good in filling in the blanks that I left out and seeing into some very basic things that I thought during the trip.
About East Asia: There is a very large population. Atheism, believing in science or one's self are very common. The rich are very rich and the poor are very poor. University students are a small, but influential group of people from all over the country that will be put in positions of power, often in international positions. There is a large problem with orphans or abandoned children (we actually got to serve at an orphanage a couple times during our stay). The people are thirsty to hear more about God and the gospel. The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few. Keep praying for a spiritual revival in East Asia.
Anyways, I want to thank you again for everything and ya, I hope I can go again in the future.
Dylan"
So, ya. I now have 10 minutes left, so just be praying for Northern Quebec and my time there. When I get back I'm singing at a wedding, off for a week, gone to Toronto for a week for a VBS, back for a week, frosh facilitator at orientation for a week, then school starts.
Okay. Got to go.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
Anyways, I wanted to finish posting it before I posted my Report that I sent to my supporters because of obvious spoilers. lol. But you guys have been praying for me too, so I want to give you the update too. The following is the (very long) email that took me a long time to type. lol It basically summarizes the six weeks.
"Hey!
It has just finished. I got back to Ottawa Friday night after a really long day of travelling and one of the very first things I wanted to do was to just thank all of you for the hours of prayer and supporting me so that I could go on this trip and help change lives in East Asia.
There is so much I could say and I'd be more then happy to tell you more at some point, but for the sake of time and to keep this short-ish I will mainly give generalizations and one or two specific stories. [It ended up being really long... xP but there's still so much more that happened.] Also, all names will be changed and all places either not mentioned specifically or changed. The pictures show a bit of what life was like in East Asia.
So, first was the flight from Ottawa to Vancouver. My first flight ever. It was pretty good, I watched a movie, ate, slept, read, etc. Then arrival. I get greeted by a couple other super excited people! "Welcome to Vancouver! EAP 2011!" or something like that and immediately get to meet like 15 or 20 people, get on a bus and drive away and continue meeting the rest of the students from across Canada that felt called to East Asia. We went to a Bible College a couple hours from Vancouver and there we got to spend four days getting to know everyone, getting amazing training from C4C staff, worshiped, prayed a lot for everything that would happen including the goals for this year's project, got to find out where we were going and who was on our 'family' for the project (the people we would be spending a large amount of time with in the city we went to), had Bible studies, had a lot of stuff happen. It was really awesome.
Then the day came. We all went to the airport and said our goodbyes on the bus. The 50 or so people going were split into 5 different families and for the same reasons of prolonging the ministry in Asia and protecting the students we had to ignore the other families while in the airport and on the plane. It was a long flight 11 hours or something. We flew around by Alaska and crossed the Ocean there. Russia has some crazy mountains.
We landed in the capital. Got our bags, had Burger King for lunch (much to my dismay. I wanted Asian food. xP), met a Long Term staff member who is working there now, got on a bus and drove away. Our city was about an hour or two away, so it wasn't that bad, but because of time changes and stuff we all slept a bit on the bus. There were eight students, one intern and two staff couples and their two babies in our family. I really got to bond with them over family diners, fun time, just hanging out after a long day, playing Frisbee, etc. and I really feel like they are my brothers and sisters now, which we are in Jesus.
Ya, so, we were actually in a city where the ministry hadn't been established yet. For us this meant that we were starting with very little background information and nothing permanent had been set up yet. We actually didn't even have signed contracts with a school when we arrived. Without a contract we didn't have classes on campus and we didn't live in student dorms. We actually lived in a hotel placed in the center of the city. It was nice (especially now that I realize that if we were in dorms we'd end up at only one end of the city). About class: we still had it. God placed a Christian teacher in this city and the long term staff had already connected with her. She agreed to help us out by teaching us for a couple hours 3 or 4 times each week, until we got a contract signed. We met at McDonald's each day and she connected some of us with her students. She really had a heart for the great commission and reaching her students with the gospel. We never ended up getting a contract, but she stayed with us the whole time and we were really thankful for her and everything she did for us. She was a great encouragement to us. Seeing how on fire she was for following Jesus even in Asia.
So for the first part of our ministry work because it was a new city we were also scoping out the area, gathering information and getting adjusted. At the same time we started with the ministry by walking up to students to find out if they could speak some English, learn a bit about them and get their contact information so that we could call them back later. This was Phase 1 ministry.
For me personally, Phase 1 was a slow start. I was going out by my own strength and not making much or any progress. I was also having bad attitudes towards doing ministry work and I wasn't really connecting with God by having solid quiet times of prayer and listening to Him. Nearing the end of Phase 1, one of my brothers really helped me out. He told me more about quiet time, his own personal struggles in ministry and how relying on the Holy Spirit for everything really is the only way we can do anything. The last day before we were going to move onto Phase 2 I was feeling really bad again. I felt that I had not done enough and at the same time felt useless. After class that day was quiet time. I ended up looking over John 14. While on project we had Inductive Bible studies of John 13-17, one chapter each week. So I started to analyze the chapter, looking for repeating words, seeing key ideas, just looking for what God had placed in this chapter. While doing this my attitude really changed. God's word really pumped me up for going out and doing His work.
So we went to a cafeteria, me and one other guy. I was at about 14 contacts of the 25 we 'should have made.' Well, my partner said that he would not be doing any of the talking unless I was completely speechless. He basically made me go alone. However, I prayed for the spirit to fill me and to guide us to a bunch of English speaking students. What happened? God led us to 8 students in an hour and a half. Even though I couldn't do it, God could. There is no way I actually expected to get all those contacts in the two hours before Phase 2 started. Praise the Lord. By stepping out in faith and relying on the Spirit, God provided and got the job done.
So, we met back at the hotel and had 'business time', a time where we plan the next couple days, have a training lesson, pray, good stuff like that. Then Phase 2 started. We didn't have phone cards or anything, but we had 5 cell phones for the staff and intern, so we used those phones to make appointments for the day ahead. We would do this each day and if they were busy when we called (although they would pick up even if they had class) we could schedule them later that week. We would often have between 3 to 5 meetings with our national friends each day. Usually we would eat a meal, go to a coffee shop, walk around or just hang out for about an hour or so. Generally we'd get to know them better and get into some spiritual topics. I don't think this ever stopped us, but the point of phase two was to gauge how spiritually interested they were and (just in case) see if they had any connections to the government before really sharing the gospel.
We got to know a bunch of the students and really become friends. We'd always encourage our friends to bring their friends to the meetings and God really used that a number of times to bring people into contact with us. By the second meeting with a student, we'd try to get a transition to a gospel presentation. This often went through the topic of holidays, or books, or weekends, sometimes just "I was wondering, do you believe in God?", but in any case the gospel was spread and many students were very interested and prayed to receive Christ. After ever single spiritual conversation I'd just be so happy. Seeing their eyes light up as the truth is told to ears who have never heard it. Seeing people genuinely interested in talking more about God. Seeing lives transformed.
One time though, me and one of the staff members on our family met up with this second year student, who I will call Tall. His English wasn't the best, but after meeting with him, we went to his dorm to talk. We ended up on the topic of difficulties in the world. He said he believed in himself and that people can solve the problems in the world. The problem is that humans make mistakes, people fall short of perfection. *Gospel presentation*. We used a booklet that had both an English and 'East Asian' translation of various Bible verses and showed that Christianity is not just 'a western thing'. We shared a lot with him, but because his English wasn't the best, he said that he couldn't explain to us what he thought about the points in the booklet. He said that his mother used to tell him about God and that he could believe that God existed. We gave him a couple websites written in 'East Asian' that explained more about the gospel and who Jesus is, but we had to leave. He was going to the capital city the following week and was going to stay there for a year. He said he would practice English very hard so that he would be able to communicate with us.
Walking back to our hotel I was overcome with this feeling. Tears kept pouring out of my eyes and the more I thought about him the more I cried. That was the last time we got to see him. There's so much more that we could have done. He could have been saved. He could have received Jesus into his life and claim the forgiveness of sin, love of God, and the personal relationship offered by Jesus' death on the cross. I guess God showed me a bit of what He feels for the students in East Asia. Students who don't even acknowledge His existence possibly because they have just never heard about Him, and there are millions of these students in Asia. I had been praying that God would reveal to me how He sees people and I think that He revealed part of it to me in this situation. I just needed to trust in God's plan for Tall's life. The seed was planted by his mother years ago, we got to water it, and somewhere down the road God will use someone else in his life to continue growing him and bringing him back to Himself.
Phase 3 was sharing the gospel with spiritually interested students. Really, all the phases overlapped. If a contact moved from one phase to another, you wouldn't just stop talking to them until the next phase started, you would continue helping them grow towards knowing God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
One thing I learned this summer was that God's plans are always the best. I saw that whenever my planning failed, God had a better plan for that time. One day I had a Phase 2 appointment set up. About 15 minutes passed and my friend didn't show up, so we decided to do some Phase 1 work. We went around and met a couple more guys, one named New. A week later we met up with him and two of his friends, Rabbit and Wilson. The conversation led into spiritual topics. Just talking about East Asia and how people don't help someone if they are hit by traffic because of all the hospital bills or how others will look at them, I felt that I should share the parable of the Good Samaritan with them and from there we were into a spiritual conversation. My partner shared a drawing of two cliffs and the uncrossable separation between them. Next he drew us (literally the 5 of us, Rabbit with a bow in her hair, me tall and with glasses, etc.) on one side. Next the characteristics defining the humans on the first cliff (imperfect, sometimes loving, sometimes good, mistakes, sin, etc.) and the other side, God (holy, perfect, unconditional love, etc.). He then explained that there is nothing we can do to cross this gap (an analogy of swimming to Canada from Asia was often used to explain this point). Next, talking about Jesus and what he has done, a cross was drawn in the middle, bridging the gap and sin was crossed out on the human side. Rabbit was very interested. Later that night we passed her contact info to one of our sisters. Next week the three of us met up with those three again and they brought three more friends. The two girls (Rabbit and our sister) went to a different table (we met at KFC each time) and she shared the gospel using the 'Have you heard of the four spiritual laws?' bilingual English / East Asian booklet and her East Asian language skills. We kept distracting the other five and had a somewhat spiritual conversation while the Rabbit was listening about the gospel and praying to receive Christ. When we were all done, Rabbit was so excited she came up to us and told us that she was our sister now! She was really excited to share with her parents and friends back home during an upcoming holiday. None of that would have happened if the first guy had shown up, if we had just done nothing for that hour, or if we had just done anything other than Phase 1 work, but God led us to New and brought Rabbit to our meeting.
Phase 4 was about follow-up with new Christians and going through some discipleship materials with them. I got to see one guy come to know Christ this summer, but I definitely wouldn't have guessed at first that we would have shared the gospel with him. Actually, I met him, let's call him Moped, on the day of rest before phase 2 began. I was struggling to take a day of rest in faith because of my 14 contacts, but in the end I just gave up the day and asked that God would still be with me and empowering me. I really saw that God is always at work, whether or not we are. So that night we were playing Frisbee by some student dorms and Moped came and played with us for a bit. I got his information. Without doing anything, God got me a contact. While I was resting, God was still working. The thing was that his English wasn't great, so I didn't call him for a while. I went through my 'better' English contacts and ended up calling him and going with a staff member. We talked for a bit with him and his friend. I think he said that his parents were somewhat Buddhist. We got into the gospel, but we went through it really slowly, letting them catch each word and fully understand what we were saying. He was really happy about it and was actually pushing his friend to believe in God too. We gave them time to think through this and we gave them the websites. The next week we met up again and this time we shared the booklet with them and he was ready to pray and receive Christ into his life. My partner had to go to another meeting, but I stayed and went through the back of the booklet and I tried setting up a time to meet again. He was actually going to be gone a long time. It was Monday, but he was leaving on Wednesday to go home for the long weekend and wouldn't be back until Wednesday. We couldn't meet on Tuesday. Each day I'd think about him and pray for him. When he finally got back we met up. This was on the last Thursday before we left the city on Sunday to go to Debriefing in the capital city. We met with the two of them again and his friend had some questions about the two circles with the chairs in them in the booklet from the week before. The one with yourself on the chair and Christ outside the circle (a non-Christian who has not asked Jesus to come into their life) and the circle with Christ on the chair and self at the foot of the chair (a life with Jesus in control and self submitting to him). He thought he was neither. He actually thought his life was more like the first, but with Christ somewhere in his life. He wasn't willing to surrender control right now though. He said he needed to believe in himself right now. Anyways, me and Moped started going into the first discipleship follow-up lesson. It was mainly about how when you receive Christ into your life He is now in you, you have eternal life and there is nothing that can separate you from Him, no one that can separate you from His love. He really got this point and the whole children of God thing made him really smile too. I gave him a notebook with the booklet's material hand-written in it and some verses. I'm so glad that I got to see Moped connect and I really want to keep him in my prayers and see him grow. I also want to see him speak God's truth into his friend's life. They asked me to give them English names when they found out that their friend had one. I decided to name them after two of the apostles, two that were brothers. I named them brothers because they will be brothers once his friend is reborn into Christ's family.
While on the trip I missed church a bit. We had a couple hours together on Saturdays to listen to a sermon from an ipod, have communion together, listen to personal testimonies, praise God (without singing) and focus on the God's word. It was pretty great though. God revealed to me more about my own testimony when it was my turn to share. I just couldn't wait to sing tomorrow in a congregation with a bunch of people when I got home. xP It really reminds us that praise and worship is not all about the music, but about God and what He has done and showing our appreciation. A student who had a Christian grandmother asked us what worship was. Although music is the first thing that comes to my head, it is by far the only thing. There are so many ways we got to worship on this trip.
Ya, what else can I say? We ate a lot of greasy food, baked goods, and Korean BBQ. We went to some parks, karaoke, some shopping, and McDonald's. We rode on small buses to get around the university city and took a taxi to town. We had two birthdays while we were there. There was one on one discipleing from the staff members. We had a lot of prayer walks and prayer time. We had a block of guy/girl time each week. We eventually got an international phone plan, but I only called home once. It was an amazing time and I really learned the importance of prayer and being always in God's presence; I learned the importance of good quiet time; I learned that taking steps of faith is always rewarded; I learned a bit of East Asian; I learned again that a church is not a building; I learned about accepting others as they are because they are a unique creation and loved in God's eyes; I learned a lot. I'm going to miss my friends, but I got their email addresses so I should be able to stay in contact at least a bit.
Last week we boarded a bus and went back to the capital. We stayed in a hotel with all the other families and had a lot of time for reflection, sharing, thinking about the future, preparing for reverse culture shock as well as a lot of other things. We also got the statistics for all the things we were praying for. This year in East Asia there were 47 students and 6 staff members. We were praying for 400 gospel presentations, 100 people praying to receive Christ and ten thousand dollars to support the great commission in East Asia. We ended up talking to about 1950 different groups of students, we had about 1500 spiritual conversations, shared the gospel 463 times, sharing again 109 times and we saw 101 new brothers and sisters come to know Jesus as their personal savior. Praise the Lord. Also from just the 50 of us 8200$ were donated to East Asia, considering we are all students or staff members that's quite a bit. We also got to start discipleing about two thirds of the new Christians, went through the Spirit filled life booklet, and shared the Jesus film a number of times.
There's so many people in Asia who haven't heard the gospel, but thanks to you and many others, many students have now heard for the first time, many have heard for a second time and some have already started a relationship with God. We need to continue praying for these things that have happened. Praying that every seed that was planted would begin to grow and be watered. Praying that each new Christian brother and sister would be actively involved in a community, growing in their faith and love for God. Praying that they won't be persecuted for their faith and that they will remain life-long labourers for Jesus. Since we never got a contract to get into a school, there is a chance that we won't have a long term team there next year. Pray that the friends we made would be followed up with and that even without us there that they could be spiritually multiplying in Asia. Also pray for the future missions in Asia. This year we were praying that within two years that of the 50 of us that went on project, that 20 of us would return on a longer term trip for a year or two or do a trip in Canada to help out other campuses. We were also praying that in four years that ten of us would become staff members. In the end though, we want to see the national students be in charge of reaching out to other students in East Asia, so pray for them too. There are actually starting to be a bunch of people going to Central Asia from East Asia and a prayer that we have is that by 2020 East Asia would be the largest missionary sending area. People from Canada can't go to Central Asia easily, but if they are from East Asia it is much easier. By supporting us, we support them and in turn they reach out to another part of the world that we can't go to.
I wanted to let you know now that I am definitely considering returning next year on project as I have seen so many things happen in the hearts of students there and I grew so much. I also want to be doing more at Carleton this year and really need to rely more on the Holy Spirit's empowerment. Also, in two weeks I am leaving Ottawa to go to Northern Quebec to work as a camp counsellor in Native communities. So, keep me in your prayers and if you didn't know already you can follow what is happening in my life by stalking my blog: Incomplete Composition on blogspot. (www.incompletecomposition.blogspot.com) I post almost everyday. While I was gone I wrote a page each day and intend to type them all up before I leave. They should be good in filling in the blanks that I left out and seeing into some very basic things that I thought during the trip.
About East Asia: There is a very large population. Atheism, believing in science or one's self are very common. The rich are very rich and the poor are very poor. University students are a small, but influential group of people from all over the country that will be put in positions of power, often in international positions. There is a large problem with orphans or abandoned children (we actually got to serve at an orphanage a couple times during our stay). The people are thirsty to hear more about God and the gospel. The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few. Keep praying for a spiritual revival in East Asia.
Anyways, I want to thank you again for everything and ya, I hope I can go again in the future.
Dylan"
So, ya. I now have 10 minutes left, so just be praying for Northern Quebec and my time there. When I get back I'm singing at a wedding, off for a week, gone to Toronto for a week for a VBS, back for a week, frosh facilitator at orientation for a week, then school starts.
Okay. Got to go.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
1.7.11
Week 7: Reflection and Growth -- June 17(2)
1:33am June 18 (Ottawa time)
Yo. It's all over. I'm home and filled with this lingering feeling of the ministry and other stuff we should still be doing, but ya to catch you up.
So, I failed the secret challenge, but I later got to see what taking that first step to just start the open discussion with the people sitting beside me would be like.
Anyways, I kinda slept, I kinda prayed, I kinda watched another movie, I kinda ended up wearing a bowl of soup for at least 7 or 8 hours, I finished writing in TL's yearbook [everyone in our family got these little notebooks to write things in for each other].
We got off the plane, got through customs in a short time, but then got caught up at baggage. We got our bags almost an hour after the plane landed. We took a few last pictures and me and AL ran to try getting on the plane to Ottawa. Too late... We had to get tickets for later. This may all have been caused by the recent strike or something in Toronto, but ya, I'm home now, so no big deal.
So, we missed the 8:10 flight, got tickets for the 10:30 and were put on standby for the 9:10. We just barely got on the 9:10, but we weren't sitting together. I was sitting beside a business man and a Philippino nanny. We talked for a bit. You know, if you just start with talking it cannot be awkward later on, but if you wait four hours before saying hello, I find it sooooooo awkward.
So ya, in the rush we got on the plane and I didn't get to call my parents. I felt bad about that. I tried to use the business man's phone at 8:50, but apparently they left at 8:30 to make sure they wouldn't be late.
I nearly broke down when I saw my mom and brother.
We drove home talking about East Asia and then I showed all of the junk I brought back with my mom and brother and I showed them the pictures I took.
Now I am listening to praise and worship music, deleting junk mail, and writing my last EAP blog post. It's been crazy.
D.Fa
[A last fam picture and the last three of us in Toronto]
Week 7: Reflection and Growth -- June 17(1)
8:27 (East Asia capital time)
So. I am going to blog three times for this day even though technically I blog once a day. The first was really yesterday's post and I am going to justify the other two because today is sooooo long. 36 hours actually. Even though I actually blogged twice on the day I arrived because the day changed and so the precident would be to just do one.... too bad.
Anyways, our family had a 'wake-over' last night. Basically a sleepover, but you are awake. Well even though that's what happens at a sleepover, the name suits the intention. Well, guess what. Everyone was asleep at some point and when it happened (to the guys only) you would get punished by being drawn on. When DP, or anyone really, tries to write on me I say "I am not a white board". Well, I got a few 'tattoos'. The best one being a sun and the quote "that's Mr. Sunshine to you" on the inside of my knee.
Ya, with little to no sleep we set out for KFC and finished any packing and set our for the airport. People were breaking down all over. PW got me going. She was the first member of our family to leave us. She just kept crying. I slept on the bus.
We got to the airport and for hours we played games, ate rice balls, and said goodbye when the time came. First was DP and RW. Then SVdM and MC. The funny thing is that after we gave them their hugs and and sent them on their way [reluctantly after like 10 minutes of saying goodbye and not wanting to] they got stuck in this huge line and kept saying goodbye another five minutes. So sad.
Anyways, now we are on the plane to Toronto. My secret challenge isn't going well.
D.Fa
[The pictures show most of the punishments for sleeping as well as how bad we were at staying awake. The only punishment not shown was that DP's poorly painted pretty pink toe nails are not pictured.]
Week 7: Reflection and Growth -- June 16
12:35am June 17th
Yo. Another long crazy day of sessions, crazy meals, tourism and family fun times. I ended up waking up two minutes before I was supposed to be downstairs for breakfast, but really, we left like 15 minutes later, so no big deal.
Baked goods again. I never said anything about egg tarts have I? Well, they are really amazingly awesomely delIcious and I've had them very many times this summer. AL really loves them too.
Session was about reverse culture shock and preparing to share about what happened when we get back so that we can make the most of every oppourtunity.
Then we had lunch. UBC and SFU were being provine-ist and had lunch alone. UoT was being UoT and had lunch alone. So we (Carleton, Brock and... another Ontario campus..? [Ryerson]) had lunch together. We had PizzaHut. I really enjoyed the change of food.
Then we went to see the 'place that the old ruler may have worshipped God'. It was pretty cool. Then we went to the 'bartering market place' for a while and I got a fat 'cat' and two belts. I got this idea that sometimes we feel we are getting ripped off, so we barder to crazy low prices or just walk away, but then the sales people (as they plea and cry) appear to be getting ripped off, but really they still profit and the people always getting ripped off are the people who make those things.
Ya, we came back, went to a 'special dinner' [with absolutely everyone in our family there even though JW was sick. NW and MN are looking the wrong way in the picture. lol], I returned the pink shirt [far too expensive and not a good fit And AL wouldn't buy it from me for a good price. lol], we went to session [a little late because returning that shirt ended up taking a long time... >.>]. Session had a lot of sharing time and a sermonish thing by future pastor DJP about what being sent means.
Then we ran off for last minute shopping, but even here in the capital city the shops all close at like 10pm so we had darn expensive Haagen Dazs Ice Cream and went back to pack.
I am full of pride for my colourful clothes. I can't believe I managed to get all that stuff in my suitcase and carry ons. I hope there is a mall in the airport where I can buy some new pants. xP I will stop buying things in one day then I'm done for a year. I promise.
D.Fa
Week 7: Reflection and Growth -- June 15
1:10 am June 16th
Hey today was interesting. I did wake up and did some quiet time, but it was mostly just reading through the stuff I should have read on Sunday.
We were going to 'a pile of bricks' today, but due to traffic and stuff we only got to be there for an hour or less. [But we did have a lot of time on the karaoke bus. lol. Good times.] We took a gondola ride up, took some pictures, engraved a stone with our initials, threw it off the 'pile of bricks' making a commitment that we would live by the Spirit and live to fulfill the great command and the great commission. Then we slid back down, but I obeyed the signs that said to slow down... Apparently I should have ignored them..? There was this woman selling fat 'cat toys'. She yelled "fat cat" at me a few times and I thought it was hilarious. I kinda want one, but not for 6$.
Then we drove around in the bus for a while. Sinful thoughts are lame. So many today... I need to kill them, but I don't know how... Ya. We stopped for eggs, the toilet, and then we finally got out.
Too late for 'the special' dinner. So we just walked to 'the show'. It was the best thing ever. Especially after today. I kinda heard the other side of a breakup. I needed to apoligize to him. I ended up getting too involved in this whole thing. I hate having to be stuck in the middle of this. I don't know what to do, but I can't tell them things that the other says, I can't hug her, I wish I knew him better, I want to give him a hug. I pray that C4C at their school thrives this year. I can't keep secrets. I need a hug.
D.Fa
Week 7: Reflection and Growth -- June 14
10:42
Yo. I am terrible at waking up early. Quiet time fail. I seem to be falling back into bad habits. I haven't really read my map in a few days, I haven't really had a real quiet time in a couple days, I'm not praying enough... Yo. Gotta destroy this. Tomorrow. 7:30am sharp. Quiet time, Bible read, prayer time. Done! Ok.
So, today we were in a different hotel for sessions. No big deal. A couple technical difficulties, but otherwise nothing major. Today I was in the minute to win it. I had to use a straw to transfer small round cookies from one full cup on the ground to an empty cup about four feet away. Our family's winning streak continues. Unimportant.
Today was very world focused. Session pointed out a lot of God caring for all nations and the later session did the same.
At lunch there were talks with STINTers which was pretty interesting. (Pray for AL)
The main thing today was an awesome prayer walk through this big square followed by a trip through the place the old ruler used to live in. It was really cool, but it's a building, so coming back again isn't very important. It won't have changed.
Ya. We went to this place with all these people selling stuff or at least trying to. How about a fan? 40$ for a white guy, only 15$ for you, although I'd let it go for 2$. So you want around 10 or 20??? Just 1. Oh... 3$. Someone marked down a pair od Dr. Dre Beats to 15$. I was tempted... That's < the cost of my earbuds. and RL would be jealous.
I want to pray that RL would really reconnect and go on a missions trip. His life would be changed like DP's was. I also pray that SVdM and TL go on a STINT. Ya. and that MC and JL grow in faith and grow in God this year.
D.Fa
"Also, I can see a wisdom tooth..."
"5$ for 5 pairs of socks. I should have asked for 6."
[picture = our new hotel room. soft beds mean I sleep too much. lol]
Week 7: Reflection and Growth -- June 13
11:38
Yo! Sunshine says what's up?!? -serious face- today was pretty cool. SVdM is a pretty nifty and encouraging person when it comes to spiritual stuff. We had a few sessions, lunch, and I had my Debrief interview. [Scary sounding, but] it's a pretty good idea. Get people thinking about what happened and what will happen. Encourage people in steps that they may not have though of taking. Check to see if everyone is emotionally stable, pray for each other. All good stuff.
You know, I only just finished first year, but this intense six week adventure has given me a lot of experience that I can use to help other guys. I really don't know what I should do or what God is calling me to, but I could do a number of the following [any of them with God's help and so much more]: co lead worship, lead a prayer meeting, co lead a DG, help with the first year guys (whether sharing with them, discipleing them, or encouraging them), sharing my experiences, encouraging others to go, MDA, so many things could happen. Not to mention Northern Quebec yo. [or Toronto VBS] or Orientation Frosh week.
Ya, but right now, I just ate a scorpion. The small ones aren't bad. xP. I don't mean to say they are amazing or anything, but ya... I would have another.
Today I prayed for passion. I was really moved by TL's passion for the people here in East Asia, just how much God has given him a desire to reach the lost here. I want to be hit with a passion as strong as the passion God gave him.
Yo, my big brothers are awesome. CW has big shoes to fill. No pressure though. xP.
Anyways, I just spent like 113$ Canadian on clothes today. Five shirts and a pair of Converses. Ya, I have five pairs of shoes now.
I wonder how much money we have raised for the great commission..?
I don't know why, but I only forget the names of the cute girls. lol.
D.Fa
"Five pairs of shoes..?!?"
Week 7: Reflection and Growth -- June 12
11:26
Hey, long day? Maybe? I don't really know. First, (which was so long ago that I hardly remember) we woke up and went to the greasy breakfast house. Then we finished all the packing and junk at the hotel and shipped out at 10:45ish. We are now in the capital. It's been pretty different, needless to say, but I am still getting stares and comments. I'm "so beautiful". lol.
Ya, the bus was a little squished, but overall not bad, I mean it was less than an hour drive. When we got here one other family had already arrived an hour earlier and JL was waiting for MC. He is cooler now. lol. We had a quick look around and got money, saw another family, got lunch, had a planning session for our fam skit which involved singing, dancing and acting [I'm a triple threat yo], had the fam skit time and first main talk, had dinner, and finally had a creative worship session where we shared what we learned about God through project and shared the stats and did some praying and shared some plans for the week.
Yo, 101 new bros.sisters! We were praying for 100 and God pulled through. Awesome. [Apparently, from what I've heard, our goal was double what it was last year and we actually sent less people. So this is even more awesome!]
Ya, when we were sharing about our experiences and what we learned of God, TW shared about his struggle to rest faithfully and how he learned that God is faithful. This got me to thinking and really, I also struggled with faithful rest the day before Phase I ended when I needed more contacts. That day I surrendered to let God have the day and God got me a contact. Guess what? That contact is the brother that I got to see pray to receive Christ. Yo. What?! I did nothing and God brought him to us yo. Awesomesauce! More about that later.
Anyways, lol. I have four pairs of shoes now. Converse. What?!
D.Fa
"Note to self, find verse "God is able to do immeasurably more than..."
[Ephesians 3:20-21 'Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.'
God is able to do so much more than we can imagine. I would not have thought that that day of rest would lead me to a new brother a couple weeks later, but God saw it all and planned it and made it happen yo.]
"rain from clear skies, what?!?" [honestly. no clouds. and it rained. we were not beside a building. it was not just falling water. it was rain. What!?!??]
[lanterns from the night before carrying our prayers for this country into the sky so that the lost can be found]
30.6.11
Training, Finished. Ready? Nope.
Hey!
Training is 'finished'. Today we mostly filled out information forms, but we also got this big binder full of game instructions, event ideas, background info for our community, recepies, and some other useful stuff, so it's good. We'll be fine. lol.
One major thing to pray for: our teammate's salvation yo. One girl on our team is muslim. She's very open though and she's really cool. Pray for us to be good witnesses with our lives and just that God would show her His love for her again and again this summer through us and the love we show to those around us.
I found out when I'm leaving! Guess when! Wrong. We leave at 3:30 am July 2! Basically watch the fireworks then stay awake a couple hours. I have to pack though. lol
Ummm. I gotta finish with my blogging. I've still got a week left or so. >.>
Yep. CW is cool.
That Korean guy is cool too. He might be leading a DG this year! He also knows DP! Praying for him
Also, one of our friends from East Asia is going to HK where DP is and I told him. I really hope they can meet up or something and talk for a bit.
Ya. lol. I multitask really slowly.
I was playing pokemon earlier. I beat brock with a butterfree and a nidoran boy. Sweet. He didn't even have double kick yet. I thought he learned it at lvl 16 when he evolves, but actually lvl 12, but I gave up training them and just went for it. Anyways, I went to Mt. Moon. Right before I was like 'this is an emulator so I can't 'forget to plug it in so it doesn't turn off without saving'' so I wasn't. Suddenly I hit the Ctrl button by accident and it's gone........ Now I haven't beaten Brock. I saved in his face, but not afterwards. >.> Annoying. TL is gonna win for sure.
Yep.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
PS. Technically, I can fit 7 classes into my winter term schedule. It's only 36 hours of class. But then I'd have like 5 labs each week... >.>
PPS. 'Bad Teacher' is a bad movie in general. It's kinda funny, but not very good. lol......
Training is 'finished'. Today we mostly filled out information forms, but we also got this big binder full of game instructions, event ideas, background info for our community, recepies, and some other useful stuff, so it's good. We'll be fine. lol.
One major thing to pray for: our teammate's salvation yo. One girl on our team is muslim. She's very open though and she's really cool. Pray for us to be good witnesses with our lives and just that God would show her His love for her again and again this summer through us and the love we show to those around us.
I found out when I'm leaving! Guess when! Wrong. We leave at 3:30 am July 2! Basically watch the fireworks then stay awake a couple hours. I have to pack though. lol
Ummm. I gotta finish with my blogging. I've still got a week left or so. >.>
Yep. CW is cool.
That Korean guy is cool too. He might be leading a DG this year! He also knows DP! Praying for him
Also, one of our friends from East Asia is going to HK where DP is and I told him. I really hope they can meet up or something and talk for a bit.
Ya. lol. I multitask really slowly.
I was playing pokemon earlier. I beat brock with a butterfree and a nidoran boy. Sweet. He didn't even have double kick yet. I thought he learned it at lvl 16 when he evolves, but actually lvl 12, but I gave up training them and just went for it. Anyways, I went to Mt. Moon. Right before I was like 'this is an emulator so I can't 'forget to plug it in so it doesn't turn off without saving'' so I wasn't. Suddenly I hit the Ctrl button by accident and it's gone........ Now I haven't beaten Brock. I saved in his face, but not afterwards. >.> Annoying. TL is gonna win for sure.
Yep.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
PS. Technically, I can fit 7 classes into my winter term schedule. It's only 36 hours of class. But then I'd have like 5 labs each week... >.>
PPS. 'Bad Teacher' is a bad movie in general. It's kinda funny, but not very good. lol......
29.6.11
Tomorrow we launch war on the air!!!
So. Today was the second day of 'training' for Northern Quebec. I still don't know exactly what we are supposed to do, but I've got a better feel..? Tomorrow for sure I'll learn something. Today we learned about creating fun games that everyone can participate in and drug safety.
Not much else happened. Free shirts!! But I have to wear them for six weeks. All day everyday. lol. At least I have two, not one. That's a positive. AND they fit well! Sweet!
We went to prayer meeting and now I'm at home wasting time again. Hmm. Only like 8 more blog posts to type up though (ignoring the fact that there are like 12 stuck in stage 2)!
Ya. Finish this week strong then apply for courses then six weeks surrounded literally 24/7 (as I've heard) by kids.
D.Fa
I miss MK!
Not much else happened. Free shirts!! But I have to wear them for six weeks. All day everyday. lol. At least I have two, not one. That's a positive. AND they fit well! Sweet!
We went to prayer meeting and now I'm at home wasting time again. Hmm. Only like 8 more blog posts to type up though (ignoring the fact that there are like 12 stuck in stage 2)!
Ya. Finish this week strong then apply for courses then six weeks surrounded literally 24/7 (as I've heard) by kids.
D.Fa
I miss MK!
Week 6: A Fast Finish -- June 11
11:46
I really don't know what to think about today. We woke up, went for a run, breakfast, went to the coffee shop, played chess, went shopping kinda, went to the big park, had a torrential ride on 'swan lake' [lol], went for dinner, had some closing prayer time, lit lanterns, and now we are packing.
I've just had this cup full of blended emotions today. I just don't know whether I am sad, mad, angry, upset, bored, on the edge of tears, resistant to leaving,... I just don't know.
In any case, nothing got accomplished today. There was no goal, no communication, no real aim, there were misunderstandings, confusion,...
The 'swan lake' ordeal was funny though. Very funny. Our intern is kinda quiet sometimes, but when she wants to do something, she is not. lol We went to the big park and she is super fast walking. A storm is coming, but no problem. She gets us in boats as a few drops of rain are falling. We get to the middle of the lake and soon the waves and pouring rain are soaking us. lol. We fought the storm, but admittedly, it won. Only DP was dry.
Anyway, we threw our remaining stones into the lake. We gave up our plans in faith knowing that God used us according to His plans and that His plans are always for the best. I pray that I could have faith in God's plan for the students, pray that I continue having quiet times and praying, pray that next year He does big things in my life and plans and that sin would dissappear from my life.
D.Fa
Week 6: A Fast Finish -- June 10
10:13
Yo. Today was a slower day at first. First was a sudden trip to this breakfast place where they had every type of 'delicious East Asian food' that you could imagine. (We ate breakfast in like 10 minutes because of our small stomachs). Then we had guys time in "Real 'East Asia'" and reviewed our previos guy times and looked back and looked forward.
Then began a seriously packed day. Back to back goodbyes with good friends. First was 'Joey'. We had a very delicious, but expensive lunch.
Then to the coffee shop with the bros (I nicknamed them that because they wanted English names and I named them after two of the apostles who were brothers.) Tl did some stuff with 'the younger brother' and I went through some follow-up with 'Moped'. I'm so sad to be leaving them already, but Moped knows full well that nothing, no one, Nothing can separate him from God's love [Romans 8:38-39].
Then cake time with John.
Then watermelon with 'Skipper'.
Then we went to 'Monkey's concert! It was really hilarious at first, but because the band really likes doing Green Day covers it was way more fun. Ya. I had a highschool nostalgia moment and felt some sadness at the fact that that was our last goodbye.
Ya. Then we had Korean BBQ. lol...
Anyways, God has really been showing me three things: That prayer is so darned important, that I should really share Jesus with my friends, and that I need to take steps in faith. God always rewards steps taken in faith. I have seen it happen.
I gave Moped a rock today. He didn't really get it, but I worte a page about it.
Anyways, why should I be afraid? Do I have no faith? God, fan the flames, yo!
D.Fa
"Mark 4:40 'He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?'
Wake Me Up When September Ends
"
[]
Week 6: A Fast Finish -- June 9
11:06
Yo. When you ask God to give you words to say, you had better be willing to say them.
Today God gave me words and I said them and it was great [as opposed to the way I haven't been saying them and feeling regret over missed oppourtunities and junk].
First was a crazy prayer walk, our last BT, phone planning, and then the day of ministry work began. First we met up with this guy who is pretty cool, but may not actually know the fullness of the gospel. He skipped class for like the first time ever or something tomeet with us today. I wish we had more time to be his friend and got hrough follow-up materials with him. Actually, I really want to go through the follow-up material with a bunch of people.
Anyways, then we went to a cafeteria and talked with some guys, then we talked to a guy in McDonalds, then I went to meet with this cool guy expecting to have a talk about his beliefs and to reaffirm or correct them, but he had class... Then I chilled with DP, then I went to be a distraction except I was gonna share instead, but God distracted him for me and DP so we both got to talk with a couple of his friends.
Goodbyes are hard yo.
Then the girls had a scavenger hunt prepared for us. It was pretty funny. [They also did some awesome raps for us!]
The fast is over and for the last seven days I have given up a good amount of food, but I don't think I really did enough during the fast. I should have prayed more. I should have asked God more. I should have listened more. I will be sure to do it again. God has supported me through 7 days.
D.Fa
"[This is mainly an inside joke, but it's a great verse either way.]
On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to recieve. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
John 7:37-39"
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