Off to Mozambique via Cape town the latest scoop

Hey hope you all had an amazing Christmas, Hawaii was fun but missing the family!


So God has changed our plans and we are not heading straight to Mozambique but heading to Cape town for three weeks to join another team from our class to serve in the township called Masiphumelele. We could not join Heidi Bakers team until 23rd January and so we cannot get into the country until then.

However it was clear God wants us there and I am really excited as this was originally where I wanted to go. This will be a necessary time for our team to continue our preparation to go into Mozambique.

Since this decision was made we have found out there has been a fire in the township in Cape town and many people died. Sadly this is not uncommon but this is the worst to hit in a long time.

The houses are made of cardboard and wood and because they cannot afford electricity they take wires from other houses and run them along the ground through puddles etc and so fires are easily started.

Because the shacks are built so closely together, every few months a fire will rip through the community leaving 80 to 400 people homeless and having everything they own burned up. They rebuild their shacks in one day, but it takes them years to regain the meager amount of possessions they owned. There are many floundering but needed initiatives to build real homes for the people of Masi, but research and experience has shown us that the average person in Masi cannot maintain a home due to a total lack of financial education.

It is no coincidence that we are travelling there at this time.  We will be many hands that will be desperately needed to help them get back on their feet. We feel that God has timed it perfectly that we can support the teams already there for this short period of time.

We are having to raise extra funds to cover the extra flights and living costs, $7000 for the whole team. Praise God and thanks to those who have given so generously I have half the amount needed within 24 hours. We are hoping it will all come in within 48. Everything is possible with God.

Hey hope you all had an amazing Christmas, Hawaii was fun but missing my family!




Thanks for all your support and encouragement I am so blessed to have friends like you.



Sorry for the big round robin but I have just received some news of a change of plans to my missionary outreach and a urgent need to raise some extra funds.



So God has changed our plans and we are not heading straight to Mozambique but heading to Cape town to join another team to serve in a township Masiphumelele. This was confirmed Christmas eve. It was clear he wants us there and I am really excited. Since this decision was made we have found out there has been a fire there and many people have died. Sadly this is not uncommon (blog has more details) but its Gods timing we can be there at such a time as this to give support to help them get back on their feet. This is the worst to have hit in along time.



Due to this important detour our team needs to raise £4550, an extra £455 each for for additional flights and living costs in SA . We are trying to do this in the next 48 hours!
We have seen God bring in $ 34,000 in our class one day in 20 minutes from between the whole class and a few visitors in 20 minutes which was awesome to encounter. Everybodys generosity with what they had been given by sponsors, family and friends was sowed into each other which meant everybody in my DTS got to go on outreach  This was $12,000 more than was needed and so as a class we were able to give it to our leaders Jeff and Beth with the blessing of YWAM so that they are now debt free!! So I know this amount is totally possible and I have faith in God's provision.x

I am sooooo excited for this time ahead and expectent that God is going to bless the communities we go to. He has loves these people and called each of the 10 people on my team speciifcally to go there. He wants to break into the poverty, withchcraft, slavery, HIV/AIDS. To see orphans and widows taken care of: fed and clothed. But the most of all to know the restoring power of his love.

I hope to be able to blog in Cape town but it may be more difficult in Mozambique. I may have to do some in retrospect but just if I go quiet it is because there is no internet.

Love to you all, happy new year. I think I will be spending mine on a plane as the whole journey with 4 flights and long lay overs will take 4 days. Our Sweden/Finland team got upgrades to business so hoping we might too!!


Happy New Year, may it be truly blessed.

God cares for the dying

I was walking one day and I saw this hospice and it was overlooking the sea, I thought to myself what a beautiful place to die.

As I was praying a few weeks later for Kona God really layed on my heart the terminally ill and dying specifically those at the hospice.

I felt that he said it may be paradise to people but when they don't know the love of God, the inner peace of Jesus and the assurance of eternity in heaven then they are suffering in hell.

I felt he wanted me to tell them he sees there suffering and he grieves with them. Even though they are dying they can know his love, peace and he can bring them a new eternal life!!

Jesus did it for the thief on the cross who was literally being held by death on a cross next to Jesus, he suddenly saw him as the son of God and Jesus says today u will be with me in paradise.

I did not know what to do with this and so I did nothing for a bit, waiting for our DTS leader to ask if anyone had specific stuff for Kona. This did not happen and a few weeks later I kept just getting the word in my mind hospice again and again. I still did not know what to do.

Then God spoke to me through Proverbs 24 v 11-12
Rescue those being led away to death
     hold back those staggering towards slaughter
does not he who ways the heart perceive it?
 Does not he who guards your life know it?
Will he not repay each person according to
    what he has done?

I was suddenly convicted to do something and a sense of urgency came upon me. I contacted the hospice and liaised with the co-coordinator there.

We talked about different opportunities and I shared my heart was to pray for people and comfort those that needed that especially around Christmas time.
She was really open to this and also another opportunity for YWAM to be involved in a bereavement camp for 5-18 year old in the summer which would be amazing.

Unfortunatlely without specific training that all volunteers have to do we could not go to see patients.

However we were able to meet a specific need that they had to do their landscaping as they are so short of volunteers they had been unable to do it. So a team of us went and really blessed them by doing the gardening.

A group of us made some Christmas cards for them that we hoped would show them the love of Christ and that we had not forgotten about them.

I learnt a lot through this, mainly obedience to the word of the Lord and stepping out in faith. It was good to serve our community!

I am hoping that the work we did even though we were not able to go and speak to people and pray for them that we have paved the way for future opportunities.

That's My King Dr. S.M. Lockridge - [OFFICIAL]

This blew me away, words can't describe him but this comes close

Intimacy unto fruitfulness

Our main aim as a Christian is to have intimacy with the lord.

- Love the Lord God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all you strength. Deut 6:5

This has been my hearts desire for such a long time that I would love the lord as he has loved me, to know this love in fullness.

If we seek the lord then from the place of intimacy he can bring forth fruit.

What fruit have I to show for my time walking with the Lord? He has saved me from many things and the fruit has been mainly for myself and I feel in a place of fullness, peace and overflowing joy. I am certain of my purpose and my destiny. This is a gift from God and I am so thankful. The reality is that I have not shared that with others and there should be fruit in lives of others. There is no condemnation in this but an encouragement to move ever closer to him and share this love with others.
Where is the fruit?  Is a good question to continually ask ourselves. We can see how our intimacy is with the lord by seeing the fruitfulness of our lives!

He is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Psalm 1:3

The water is Jesus:

He promises all who are thirsty can come to him and drink, we need water to survive and I have come to truly realise the need I have for Jesus in everything I do. I will always need more water!

The point of being a tree next to the stream is that our roots need to be growing near a water source in order to survive and bear fruit.

In order to continue to bear fruit we need to be cultivated. God in John 15 is described as the Gardener of the vine,he loves to create and gardening is creative, nurturing bring forth life. He plants us and continues life long to grow us. He is more committed to us than we are to him, he knows when there are things that need to have pruned off us so we can bear more fruit.

It might feel painful as things are cut off, it may be completely freeing to loose dead wood but the promise is always life and ultimately growth and more fruit. We are always connected to the vine when we are in relationship with Jesus. He says remain in me, this is really "hang out with me", not do this for me, strive for me but just be with me.

Jesus goes onto to say that if you hang out with him and let him hang out with you that what you ask for will be given to you. This is not about money, a house etc. You would not invite Jesus to hang out and then ask for something that is not about him and things he loves.  The things we ask are are for him. The fruit is a consequence of this intimacy, its not a requirement. Jesus invited us 1st so we don't need to beg either.

When we operate out of this place of loving him we can be confident of where we find ourselves.

This is weighty and I loved pursuing this during our prayer and worship sessions a 2 hour timetabled session. I was amazed at the clarity in which I heard Gods voice during these times, and he does speak when we allow him space!

One of the 1st things I felt was that Jesus was specifically saying how much he loved me and even if I was the only person on earth he would have still come down from heaven to earth to die on the cross, just for me. He showed me that there was a hardness in my heart that has prevented me from fully knowing the love of Christ and therefore being able to be fully loved.

His promise is to give us a new heart and put a new spirit in you, to take our hearts of stone and give us a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26

So how do we cultivate this intimacy?

We worship, hang out with Jesus, know his love, find out who he was, is and is to be again! 

Its for eternity!

Rooted in the word, we can find out a lot about who he is from the stories written about him, he was the word! He is the way!
 

I am off to Mozambique.

It was a really fun time hearing about all the outreaches and what has gone before. God had moved in amazing ways and transformed lives and communities. They all sounded amazing. Even how it unfolded in New York in the fashion industry was unprecedented and YES God cares about these people too! However I still did not think I was being called to this particular sphere.

I wanted to be open to wherever God wanted to send me but as soon as I saw that Mozambique was added as an option I was so excited. I recounted a conversation I had before I left which I now consider prophetic. I was really wanting to work with people with HIV/AIDS in Africa but that Cape town would still feel quite developed in parts and I felt God wanted to stretch me, culturally and to experience something that would open my eyes to see the world and its suffering. So Mozambique really fitted with that.

In the first week in class we were worshiping God and praying and I got this image in my head about children. I felt God was saying I am going to give you babies and children to love, even if they are not your own you will love them like they are. My heart really melted and it was emotionally overwhelming. I was not sure though what it meant .....yet! For those that know me know children have not always burned on my heart but I feel this is changing.

I was trying to seek God to make a decision about where to go I kept getting caught up in what if it just me that is selfishly wanting to go to Mozambique and really I should go somewhere else!! That somehow GOD would want to send me to somewhere I had no passion to go!! LIE, this is not who he is!!

I was praying about this and asked God to somehow show me where he wanted me to go. I felt that he said draw a flag..... I was like God I don't know flags? He said draw it....so I closed my eyes and instantly got this image and drew a flag with the lay out as below and wrote the colours on it, minus the detail in the triangle.

I ran back to the room and googled all the countries on offer and each time it was not like the one I'd drawn then finally coming to Mozambique I typed it in and could feel the anticipation rising. I was utterly gobsmacked but the flag was like the one I had drawn. I know God speaks to us but this was really something new for me!! I was sooo happy though and really sensed that God gives us a passion and a heart for countries and that was the reason I was drawn to it.

This outreach is still taking shape. I think   it will have challenges, it is one of the poorest nations in the world. 12% of the population have AIDS, they have been torn apart by civil war. There are thousands of orphans and abandoned children, poor health care/education.

There are 10 of us going and most likely we will be working with IRIS ministries http://www.irismin.org/ lead by Heidi Baker or we will be hitting the Mozambique bush with Heidi herself to go to unreached villages. It will be a honour and privilege to work alongside this lady who more than models Jesus but walks like he did!! She has many orphanages and so there will be plenty of children to love!

We may be ministering to those who work on the rubbish dumps and sleeping on dirt floors. I may well get malaria as the chance of getting it is higher than not so I am under no illusion now that I have been called here. It will be stretching and take me to one of the hardest places I could go in terms of facing the harsh reality of poverty, disease, the impact of war as well a poor living standards but I am so excited and expectant of what God is going to do through my team.

Please pray for this time of preparation:

That the people of Mozambique will know Gods love for them that he would have mind to give us a heart for them that we would give it all to go there and show them. That we would see radical transformation

Development of a vision for outreach: 28th Dec - approx 15th March

That my outreach team will be walking in unity and love
That all the team get their funding

Protection health/fear

Wisdom and discernment of how the holy spirit is leading us.


Blessings to you all

Community Transformations South Africa Outreach

This is a DTS team in Cape town and shows some of the ministries I could be involved with during my DTS.

Kona Iron Man

With 2 of my room mates 4am!!

This was a really fun day. Many from our Ywam base were security for the day. This was basically stopping people running in front of the athletes which soooo many people did!!!! We did get to have a brilliant view of the athletes and I was stationed at the swim cycle transition which was great. These athletes did 2.4 mile swim, 120 mile bike ride and a marathon. There were obviously the elite athletes but also people with disabilities that totally overcome them. There were even entrants in their 60's, 70's and 80's. I was really in awe of everybody's determination. It was a scorching day and I could not handle standing in it let alone running in it. The top athletes complete it in just over 8 hours!

I am feeling inspired to try a triathlon when I get home!!! Not ironman though so don't get any ideas!!



Also our school leader Jeff felt God say he should try and get hold of one of the major contenders and one of best in the world to come to our class the day before the race so we could pray for him and God could bless him . We found out also if he won Ironman he would be using the money for his projects for children in Africa which is noble. He usually has press conferences, interviews etc because he has major sponsors but anyway after ringing a friend of a friend he got hold of him. Which in itself was really something. Surprisingly he was really keen and came to our class. It was great to meet such an amazing athlete and God really blessed him and his wife and running was only a by product of him running after God. Very cool that all things matter to God even ironman. Sadly he didn't win after leading all the bike race for 120 miles and up to mile 15 in the marathon he developed a bug and was really sick!!!

Fun day.



Radical Transformations

God wants to transform, create, restore. He is a God of love and compassion and mercy and only ever acts out of Love. We were made in his image and made to reflect his Glory in all that we do. His glory is in every beautiful sunset, coast line, gooey chick flick that yanks on your heart strings. We all immediately recognise these things as beautiful, they all come from God because it reflects him.

I am realising it is a journey to know Gods love and this comes out of a heart that is passionately pursuing after Jesus, to know him more. The most exciting thing is there is always more!! He's intricate, infinite and personal and when we think we've got it there is more! In heaven we might worship for 1000 years and God will turn his face slightly and we will see new and amazing things and this will lead to a 1000 more years of worship.

What I have learnt is that Jesus did not only die to just suffer for the things we have done that separate us from the father but that he did it joyfully, that he looked beyond the cross to you and me and that this Love held him there. He saw the love he has for us but also for the restoration of humanity and the world.

The Christian walk goes beyond just accepting that Jesus died so I can go to heaven, it so much more its all about living for Christ now. We are called to so much more than we imagine and hope for our lives. God wants to see the world back as it was in the garden of Eden where we all walked with him and had no shame before him, there was no death, destruction or poverty. He promised us then that we should eat from the tree of life and that is his intention now on this earth. I have been stuck on just salvation for far too long thinking that this Eden would only truly happen in heaven. I have always believed that when Jesus talks about the Kingdom of God being here now that God wants to break in to heal, restore, make new, create, and bring an end to injustice and poverty but what I had not seen was that God wants Edenic lifestyle again throughout the the Earth, that his Glory will fall on every nation and nothing can prevent this but that we are all called by Christ to be a part of this amazing rescue plan. This has been a huge revelation to me, it has radically transformed the way I view the . I can now see Gods plan for the world and evidenced in many old testament scriptures and I don't have to feel any hopelessness for those in poverty or sex trafficking or slavery or under any other thing that binds us. Praise God.

I am excited to see what happens next each week has been full of such amazing revelation.

We have not just been talking the talk but also walking the walk. We do community outreach about 80 (people from other classes join us) of us go and ask God who we should talk too, sometimes he gives specific details about people sometimes we just hang out with the homeless or the holiday makers as that is how Kona is a real mix.

Already we are seeing people coming to the Lord just because we go, hang out and share with people how much God loves them and wants to know them, I find this a new thing and challenging at times, but this is because I have had a narrow view of who Jesus was and is. I feel as I understand more about how Jesus loves me that I am able to love on others in a new way, not out of my own heart or strength but out of the love that Jesus pours on me.

We had three guys join us one night who were in the army, and who were just chatting with a couple of classmates. They were open to prayer at the end, one of them felt something strange when he was being prayed for, he knew it was God. They were really blessed. The next night they travelled an hour to come to the base and one of the other guys said "what have u done to my friend" as something was going on with him, later that night he opened his heart to invite Jesus to be in his life. Such a special time.

I have felt a shift in my heart and at times the joy is really contagious. One of my classmates decided to get baptised and it was wonderful hearing how he wanted to turn away from being selfish and seek after God. That he felt that that God had greater purpose for him. About 50 of us went down to the local beach which was really fun. He got baptised in the sea. I love baptisms maybe even more than weddings as they just speak of how much God does for us and how we desire to declare it and then symbolically going under the water to leave our old self behind and come up as a new creation in Christ!!! I noticed a guy and he was just standing there wondering what was going on. I went over to him for the 1st time not frightened of the mismatch between us, as he was a 19 year old guy with a skateboard. I just felt an urgency to explain who we were and what we were doing. We got talking and some other guys from my class joined and we ended up praying for him as he was off to start a course in Justice. He said and he knew God but had not talked to him for a while. God really blessed him and I believe wanted to affirm him for pursuing this he is JUSTICE . I was so excited and happy that God used me in this way, as there is no way I would have done this before. I would worry I could connect with him but Gods love speaks through you not from you. Its broken off definite preconceived idea that I can only connect to certain people.

It is just so cool to watch as everybody is growing in faith, in passion. We are a diverse bunch and all with powerful testimonies. Some of my classmates have had many issues: a recent heroin addict, someone who has drug addict brother and mother who went to jail a few weeks before they came, girls with eating disorders, all of us have brokenness but God is showing up and they are being restored. It has greatly challenged me that we don't have to be sorted before God will use us he will use what we have in our hands!

God bless you all, missing everybody and think about you often.

Campus Life

Hawaiian culture is easy going and I feel I have settled  in really quickly. You can't help but smile when the sun is shining and you can see how beautiful creation is. The sun set above is the view from my room, I can see the sea which is fantastic. The sun sets are like this most days, spectacular.

I was so surprised when I arrived to find there was 800 of us on campus. Its massive!! Its the biggest intake this year which is no coincidence as it is the 50th anniversary of Youth with a mission and we are in the last quarter before the big celebration in November.

We had a massive Hawaiian welcome with hula dancing which was lovely. A student representative from each of the nations participating in schools came out with their nations flags and I was thinking wow I really don't know any flags (this is important u will see why later) and then they fly them all on campus (pic above) .

We have over 50 nations represented here in Kona anywhere from Cameroon, Khazkhstan, Afghanastan and many others. It is such a cool environment as we get to know how God influences us all to move amongst every nation and we do this alongside each other not as a homogenous group but as muiltcultured ethnic group of authentic Jesus lovers who are desperate for the world to be as it was originally designed to be.

The digs are basic but completely sufficiant, I am so glad that I was put into a room with 5 others who are all similar ages to me. Funny story when I was staying with lovely Sarah and Roger before I came we were looking at the Community TRansofrmations DTS (this is my school name)facebook group and Sarah spotted a girl called Janelle Goetz who is Canadian and my age. I was so pleased that there was at least 1 other girl my age. Sarah prophetically said I think she will be a great person to know and u will be good friends. Well we are and we share a room. God is so Good like that.

We have a little bathroom and kitchenette so can store the essentials like TEA!! We all have a lot of hair so there is a lot of that everywhere but we have had alot of fun and feels like we've known each other for ages. Four of us are in the same DTS Janelle, Vicky (from Philadelphia) Ameris (from NYC) and then Allison and Sueji from South Korea who are doing another DTS. They all cover similar topics but with different teachers, approaches and some different focuses.

The campus is pretty big, there is a small pool and weights room, library, new outdoor cafe which is the social hub and outdoor dining area.

There are 64 in my DTS (pic of us and our classroom above) Community Transformations is our focus (see next Blog), they usually have 30 but another 30 applied and they felt that they should accept double!! There is mainly a young bunch 18-21, with 8 over 30 which is more than I expected. We have four famalies including my leaders Jeff and Bethany,who have a 5 week old baby and still have enough time and energy for us. All the famalies have at least 3 children and sold up their houses and lives to come and serve Jesus as a family. The campus is totally set up to make the children as much part of things as the adults. This has completely humbled me that they have come as a family to serve that just because they have children they cannot be called to missions but Jesus talks about how children are integral to his heart in reaching the lost and the broken (Luke 18:16). They are all great and serve Jesus in a way that I have been learning alot from their simple and beautiful approach to people.

We generally get up at 6 am and have classes until 12pm then, prayer room 1-3 where we worship and pray for different nations as God puts them on our hearts, then work duties until 5. Except our school has work duty every other weekkend for 8 hours each day which I think I prefer so my days in the week are not so packed. This means I can consolidate all that is taught in the day, or go running etc!! My work duty is in the kitchen preparing and serving food (for 800) it busy but we have fun as a team.

We have fitness stuff first thing in the morning, I am so pleased about this as I wondered how I would fit in exercise. Our class has to commit to at least 2 hours a week and they have provided options, so I am running and doing circuit stuff at least 3x a week. Our leader feels passionately that we should honour GOd with our bodies, so true!! so hopefully I WILL WIN THE CORN SYRUP WAR!! As I work in the kitchen I get to read all the labels and it is in everything and one of the reasons why America has an obesity problem.  I am trying to avoid it but not always possible... but it is tough to cater for that many people on a budget.

Campus is quiet on the weekends so I am happy to work one then have the next free to get some alone time with "the Big guy" as our weeks can be frenetic and with people 24/7. We can still get to the beach too so don't feel my tanning is being deprived. Not surfing yet as the local beaches are mainly for snorkelling which is so fun, turtles everywhere. I need to plan a weekend where I do at least some body boarding!!

Aloha from Hawaii

　
After a fun party saying goodbye to good friends I have finally made it to this pacific island.
Thanks again to all those that helped make it possible, it would not have happened with out all your amazing friendship.
The first ten days I was getting aclimitised to Hawaii and its culture. I met my dear friend Cath from NZ (old flat mate) and we had alot of fun travelling around the island. We hired a car and I had to quickly get used to driving on the left. We made a rule I was only allowed to veer to the right and over 2 rumbles before I had to correct myself!! The car was a little bigger than I'd anticipated by the fact we got an automatic upgrade as this was the only vehicle left.
We travelled over to Hilo which has a very different feel to Kona, the people more alternative, The terrain is mainly rainforest. We stayed in a hostel with a beautiful tropical garden, which had an amazing variety of flowers and trees which I have put in a few photos. The Guava trees smelled so good. At night the tree frogs (or as I first thought birds) were so loud all cherrrrping away, like a all night frog rave. It became quite entertaining. Never actually saw one but there must have been thousands.
We did a couple of trips, one snorkelling where I got to swim with a turtle (the others were hiding) and reef fish. It was just so lovely to be with these creatures. There was no sand beaches in hilo mainly rock the surrounding grass area were coconut groves where any moment you could have one fall on you!
We met a cool guy called Chris who used to be in a band the impossible shapes, he was from Indiana a former psychadelic rock band ( my spacr them have a listen). We did a hike around the Volcano Crater Rim. It was weird, u descend and ascend through rainforest and then hit a massive crater with in places steaming lava tubes. The crater was formed by a big explosion millions of years ago. Amazing how any thing grows but there are places where there are plants and trees bursting out of the hard lava. I also walked through a Lava tube that was about 300 metres long and pitch black even with e head torch you can only see a little way in front of you. At one point there seemed to be a big drop off into the bowels of the earth, it was only a metre but felt more. It was really fun.
Our next big adventure was a night hike out the live lava flow, where it pours out into the pacific ocean, and where it is forming a new island which won't be above sea level for thousands of years. We trekked at dusk and gradually approached this billowing smoke. We went up and down over old lava tubes, which make weird patterns like rope or hair and then some have what seem like gold and silver patterns on. some crazy people have built some houses out on the lava field. Apparently the tax is only a $1.00 a year but in our opionions not worth the risk of the lava changing direction and taking the house out.
As we drew closer to the smoke the night drew in and we could then see the red of the molten lava in the middle of the smoke. When we were about 100 meters away the lava beneath our feet was so hot and between the cracks we saw the red glow of lava. It was really scary as this is the ledge and can be dangerous. We trusted our guide and lots of other groups were there too but they kept saying it can be here one day and gone the next, very encouraging. Super amazing though, one of the most amazing thing I have ever seen. The lava as it hits the waves shoots the lava up 40 feet into the air and it was really hot standing there!! As time went on and the tide shifted the lava started to come up to very near where we were standing our guide still seemed unconcerned, anyway we eventually made our way back. Great experience.
We then headed back to Kona which has a sweet chilled feel to it, lovely ocean views and breeze. We were able to sit and watch the waves as we ate breakfast which was just so relaxing.
A few days R and R and that was just a perfect way to end a perfect holiday.

The history

Why I am doing this............?

I have been accepted on to a discipleship training scheme (DTS) in Hawaii starting in September. I hear you say how convenient that Hayley feels called to mission work in Hawaii, well……….. somebody has to go and why not go to study somewhere that is going to inspire your mind and maybe I will learn to surf to boot.

I feel that this particular course is unique in what it offers in terms of 3 months teaching and equipping (lecture phase in Hawaii) and then 3 months in the missionary field (outreach phase) I feel that this time will be invaluable to me. I need to learn how to minister effectively before I go and apply it practically. I could be sent to New York, Cape Town, Sweden/Finland or Amsterdam. I would really love to go to Capetown where the outreach is in the townships working with people with Aids which is an area I feel drawn to. However they choose the teams to send so I don't have complete control over this.

The organisation that I will be working under is called Youth with a Mission, YWAM for short pronounced "WHY-wham", (and yes I still class as a youth in the admission criteria). It is an international volunteer movement of Christians from many backgrounds, cultures and Christian traditions, dedicated to serving Jesus throughout the world. . It was founded in the 60's by a guy who recognised the need for Christians to be discipled and to learn how to be disciple others, to share the gospel of Jesus and reach out to the needy in the world. The purpose is simply to know God and to make Him known. The founding school was set up in Hawaii so I know it still has the essence of this original vision today.

I have been thinking about doing this for some years. I have been a Christian for 9 years but have never served in a Christian organisation before. My main objectives are that I want to spend time out of my every day, as happy as I am and grateful for my life in London sometimes it can a be like being on a hamster wheel, if you know what I mean and I want to get off this wheel for a while and spend quality time with God. I know there is more purpose to my life and so I am going to find it. I want to learn more about the bible so that I am equipped to share it with others. I also believe that first it is important that people feel they belong to and feel supported in their community whether they believe in Christ or not, and when people come to know God it is just the beginning of a journey and they need people to mentor them, answer questions and support them in their journeys. I want to learn how to walk along side them and help them grow their faith.

It’s not just sharing the Gospel. I believe that Jesus is the best humanitarian that ever lived and is concerned with every aspect of life. Therefore, the outreaches are filled with educating local individuals, being involved in mercy ministries, providing humanitarian aid, and combating injustices such as poverty, human trafficking, hunger, and others. The Kingdom of God is about more than saving souls; it’s about offering holistic transformation. I want to experience this serving in the missionary field. I am lucky I have not been persecuted for my faith and so feel I am in a great place to give out. I want to be challenged in how I live out my life in serving others. I think in a completely different culture and context this will be a real catalyst to my growth and development but that I can also contribute something really positive to communities in need. I hope to then integrate this into my own life when I am back wherever I live. I see that these skills can be applied in all avenues of life, forever. Its practical and it’s amazing!!!
All the projects are about transforming communities and providing for people practically as well as sharing our faith with them.


Although I don't know at this stage about where I am going on outreach I will endeavour to share with you where I am headed and what projects I am doing as soon as possible.

I will be sharing with you my progress leading up to the time I leave, with my fundraising plans, my half marathon and all the other exciting things.