Ninjas!
I cant believe how time flies! Outreach is less than two weeks away. So besides playing dress up we have actually been doing allot of preparation for the Philippines and Thailand. Lately we have been practicing a hula, a Fijian dance called the Pati Pati, and a handful of skits. We have our intinerary pretty much figured out and it looks kinda like this:
Philippines
December 13-January 4: Baguio City (manual and spiritual labour restoring the effects of the recent tsunami and preaching at a Christmas youth camp)
January 5- 18 Olangapo (prostitution ministry)
January 19-23 Angeles City (pray& intercession for the city)
Thailand
January 24-February 22 (One Gen- coffeeshop ministry, friendship evangelism, soccer camp, teaching english)
I feel completely prepared.
I feel completely unprepared!
Its a paradox. If thats even the right use of the word. Our itinerary is in place, the students are ready to go, Sam and I have lead before and know the drill. But with that said, i dont wanna just breeze through this outreach. I dont want my natural humanitarian empathetic heart to attempt to love and lead.
A verse that hit me recently was Matthew 9:17:
“Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”
Please join me in praying that God will be pouring out his heart to me. I want all of Him and none of me this time around. In everything i want to be Holy Spirit lead. I only want Him and His heart for my co leader, my team, and the people of Thailand and Philippines.
Its gonna be grand!
And here is our KAUAI Team (minus two):
Two weekends ago we went over to the ‘Garden Isle’ to scope things out. We flew over there on Friday and were warmly welcomed by a rain storm. We spent Friday night at a Missions banquet where we were introduced as the soon to be Ywam pioneering team. Saturday and Sunday was spent meeting and praying with a few contacts. We were soo blessed by the response. What we heard from almost everyone who prayed for and with us was : Its not gonna be easy, but were soo glad your here.
One of the major strongholds on the island is suicide. Even grabbing some tea at Starbucks i saw a notice for a suicide survivors vigil on the bulletin board. Now im not one that gets easily depressed, like at all, but the first day we were there i was definetly thrown off by the dreary weather, slow paced culture and feelings of isolation. Instead of letting it discourage me, it just made me want to come here and reach out to the people! Before going there i was mainly just interested in what we could accomplish FROM Kauai not FOR Kauai. I was excited for the DTS to be up and running, to see our students lives changed, and to go on an extended outreach somehwere. But over the weekend i felt God giving me a heart to serve the locals and see their lives transformed first.
Thus, God is crazy. I am busy. I am excited. I am fully alive!
Also, Happy American Thanksgiving!