Wow! What an amazing and incredibly challenging month this has been! I have so much to share and unfortunately not a lot of time at the moment to write much….I did;however, want to get a blog up and share a few bits and pieces with you.
First, a few team changes occured back in Romania. All of the teams have had a few people move, and with that new team names have been given. Team Abandon is no more…we are now Team S’MORE. Yes, as in a s’more that you eat at a campfire…the idea was that we all want more of God, more of His annointing in our lives and ministry, more of walking in step with His Spirit , more knowledge and understanding of His grace and love. Well, with the team changes, AJ has moved teams and now Warren Cheely and Hannah Olsen
have joined Cori, Luke, Kimi, Erin and myself. Also, Cori is now our Team Leader.
have joined Cori, Luke, Kimi, Erin and myself. Also, Cori is now our Team Leader. TEAM S’MORE (eatting smores in Israel!)
From my last posting I was writing to you from Romania. My sweet sister in Christ, Tara, was in an accident while we were at our hostel. She fell off the roof and shattered her pelvis and incurred some internal bleeding. Tara’s mother flew in to be by her side in Romania while the rest of us went on to Istanbul, Turkey. By the way, great news with Tara’s progress, she has within the past week taken her first steps! Read all about her fall and what God is doing in her life right now!
While in Turkey my team spent a few days ‘touring’ with the locals…a few things we were able to do there included a lot of prayer walks and building relationships with some people. We found our way onto University campuses and had the chance to build relationships with a few students and even a security guard! We were able to hang out with some of our new friends and learn more about them, their lives and share our faith and how Jesus has changed our lives! God also provided us opportunities to give out bibles to a few people and we know that His Word will not return void in accomplishing His purpose!!! One of my favorite memories of our time in Istanbul happened when my team was given the task of locating Turkish gypsy people—a people group not reached within the area. My team was out one day trying to find some of the gypsy people and after hours of no such luck, our translater was able to make a phone call which led to a conversation with someone who then led us to a remote village…we ended up in the jackpot of gypsy villages!!!! And we were there for a gypsy wedding that was taking place right there in the street! The gypsies invited us in, had us dance with them and then asked us to return…..and the next day we did! After spending some time talking with some of the ‘elders’ of the gypsy village and after some songs with the kids, I had asked one of the older women if we could go talk in her home. God was stirring my Spirit so hard to share the Gospel with them. She wanted hear from me and from our translater, a Turkish muslim believer. We had the opportunity to pray for her and give her a bible and a DVD of the Jesus Film Project.
Some of the team with two of our new friends that we made at the University of Istanbul
Me and some of the gypsy people in Turkey
We are now in Israel. We arrived in Tel Aviv a few weeks ago and have been staying in the city of Arad, a city on the southern desert part of Israel in the Negev region. During our first week here, the girls from my team traveled up Taibeh, a city outside of Tel Aviv and we had the chance to live with host families within a Bedouin village. The Bedouins are semi nomadic Arabs that are known for being sheep, camel and goat hearders. The Bedouin residents of Taibeh were displaced from their home in the Negev following the peace agreement between Israel and Egypt in order that the Israeli government could build a military base to replace a base previously located in the Sinai. While we were there we visited an Arab school, met with a local political official to learn more about Israeli-Arab relations and assisted in writing website copy for the Bedouin Assocication for Education & Health Development. Living with the host families was amazing…we ate a ton of pita and humus, drank tea and spent time with the women in the community. The great thing about this community is that our contact is working with them to establish a formal English program and he will soon be able to send volunteers there regularly.
Me, Kimi and Hannah in an English class in the Bedouin community.
When our time in the Bedouin village came to an end, our team returned to Arad. We spent our first day back on a historical tour with our contact. He brought our group camping for 2 nights up in the Galilee region. We stopped at the archeological site where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, climbed up Masada, visited the caves of En Gedi (God presented another amazing opportunity to share the Gospel there!), camped at Bethsaida, went to the Sea of Galilee and visited the town of Caperneum. We also read a lot out of the Gospel of Mark while there, which was awesome because that was my first ever bible study that I participated in back in Dallas! After our camping trip, we returned to Arad. There we spent a lot of time during the day resting, studying the Word, and just having good time with Jesus! In the evenings we are teaching at our contacts English center. There we are working specifically with Sudanese refugees from Darfour.
Today I just arrived in Jerusalem along with KImi, Hannah, Luke and Warren. We are here for 3 days working with a friend of our contact. Thankfully we will have some time tomorrow to see some of the sites here…I can not wait to walk the Via Delarosa, pray in the Garden of Gethsemane, stand on the Mount of Olives, walk through Hezekiah’s Tunnel and visit the Western/Wailing Wall.
In a few days we will be leaving for Egypt. We will spend 2 days in Cairo prior to flying into South Africa for our next 3 months of ministry.
Just a quick note, God is growing me so much every day. He has been teaching me patience and also in trusting Him. I am also walking through a lot of issues of co-dependency which started to surface a few months ago. My team is a community that has rallyed behind me and is helping me fight this battle. God is showing me more everyday more of my identity in Him and finding my worth, validation and stability in who I am as His daughter. Thank you for your prayers!
