I'm leaving Herrnhut...

First of all, I know where I’m going for outreach! The teams were decided, and I will be going to Italy, Greece, and one other country in Europe. I’m SO excited to go back to Italy and we will be there over the holidays…and will possibly be spending Christmas in Rome! We are going to be traveling through Italy by van, and then we’ll be taking a ferry to Greece. We will spend three or four weeks in both Greece and Italy before spending time in another European country. I am really happy with the team I will be with (there are about 13 of us) and I cannot wait to see what God will do!

And tomorrow we will be leaving for Hamburg! We leave at about 9 in the morning and will hopefully arrive at the church by 8 that evening….it will be a long day of traveling! And I spent my entire day today packing and getting all my stuff together. Once again, I had to go through my stuff and get rid of a bunch of things to leave behind here at the base. It was quite a challenge but I think that I am ready to go!

Once in Hamburg, we will have no internet at the base (but there are internet cafes) and limited water usage – this means only two showers a week! We are definitely going to be prepared for outreach when it comes! We also get new work duties and I’m hoping I’ll get to do something other than peeling potatoes and chopping onions for two hours. It was getting very exhausting.

Thank you for all your prayers! I will write once I get internet again!

Week Three!

This upcoming week will be our last week before we officially become the “Mobile” DTS. We are leaving next Sunday for Hamburg – it’s hard to believe I’ve already been here for a month! But in Hamburg we will be staying in a church. I’m excited for our group to be together, since we have been with the MOTA DTS here in Herrnhut. At the church we will all be sleeping, eating, and hanging out in the same place so we will definitely get to know each other much better! In Hamburg, we will continue to have lectures, studies, and work duties, but there will be a greater emphasis on ministry. Hamburg has a very high and growing rate of prostitution and human trafficking, so we will be ministering in that area. Also, the churches of Hamburg have become very liberal, which is another area we will be focusing on and praying for.

But this past week has been good –the weather has been beautiful! So some of the other girls and I have been taking walks through the forest. On Friday, we had a prayer night that started about nine…and went until five the next morning! It was very cool (even though I was getting extremely tired!) and we got to pray for a lot of different people, nations, and situations.

This next week we will (hopefully!) find out where we will be doing outreach in December…we are all getting very anxious to know the locations! I’m hoping that I can leave Europe and go to Africa or Asia. I really want to experience a completely different culture and be a part of a third world country, specifically where we will be around a lot of kids. And I wouldn’t mind being someplace warmer.

We also started doing Bible studies this past week and my group will be studying the book of Isaiah. I don’t know much about Isaiah so I’m excited to go through the book and understand what it means. I am also with a few girls I don’t know very well so I’m happy to get to know them better! Our lectures focused on getting to know God and is character - and our speaker was the father of Jessica, one of the staff members. And this next week Jessica's mom will be speaking to us.

It's been a busy week but I've had a very relaxing weekend, so I'm ready for tomorrow and the rest of the week!

Week Two!

It was a long week, but went well! A lot has been going on, which is why I haven’t written for a while. We had an AMAZING speaker this week! His name was Dan and he spent the week telling us stories from his missionary work. Several years ago he spent time in Afghanistan and Iran, eventually ending up in an Iran prison for 9 weeks. His testimony is unbelievable and his sense of humor (even in telling us about prison!) truly showed us the joy of the Lord. I’m sad the week is over but I’m so grateful I was able to learn so much from him!

This week was sooo cold and I broke down and wore my winter coat one day. Last night got below freezing and so I wouldn’t be surprised if it snows pretty soon! But if it does, that will make the cold more bearable since Germany is absolutely beautiful. But unfortunately when I packed, I ended up leaving behind several of my warm clothes behind me (because of space) and now I’m beginning to regret that. A lot. So, today a group of us went into Dresden and went shopping for warm clothes. Then we spent a couple hours at Starbuck, using their internet because here at the base our internet is limited.

We also know where we will be going! In two weeks, we are leaving for Hamburg, Germany. After being there for two weeks, we have one week of flexibility (not sure where we will be…) before we leave to Switzerland! Then, December 17 we will be leaving for outreach (those locations will be known within two weeks) which will most likely be in third world countries. This also means that I will not be having a Christmas break and instead I will be having Christmas in a completely new culture!

Last year, the Mobile DTS traveled every two weeks, leaving the students exhausted, so this year we won’t be traveling quite as much. At first I was disappointed, but now I’m excited to get to know the cultures better than if we were constantly traveling. And I’m really excited to spend so much time in Switzerland J

I have just completed my first week of Discipleship Training School! This week we had teachings on hearing the voice of God, and already I can tell you that God has been teaching us amazing things! Our speaker’s name was Jen, and she has been part of YWAM for the past eight years and is a strong woman of God. She shared part of her testimony and her past experiences with us, as well as how God can restore us and speak to us. It was very cool and I’m very excited for the next speaker!

But first of all, please pray for us, because many of us – including myself – are getting sick with various illnesses. Right now I have the cold that has been going around and it makes concentrating and learning very difficult!

I did my first outreach on Friday, at an asylum, a place for refugees. Most of the people who live there are Muslim men.  A group of about ten others and I went to the asylum, unsure of what would happen. We didn’t want to force the Gospel on them, so we went to spend time with them and talk to them, wanting to show them the love of Jesus. And in God’s timing we know that He would come into the conversations we would have. Several of the students and leaders (myself included) went to the apartment of a few Muslim men, and after a few minutes, they began talking about their beliefs. Before long, we were in a discussion about the Bible, the Quran, Jesus, and Muhammad. The men spoke about five different languages, so it was very difficult to follow the conversation at times. But I think that God used that conversation to plant new thoughts into their minds, so please pray that God would continue to water those seeds until they grow!

Yesterday, me and a few others decided to take advantage of our first free weekend and we went to Prague! It was cold, wet, and at times completely miserable, but overall SO much fun! A group of girls went to Prague on Friday afternoon, and so my friends Cassie, Maria, Jayson, Mark and I met up with them in Prague on Saturday morning. We spent the day enjoying the city and the beautiful buildings, taking pictures and going shopping. I had my first hostel experience - and I’ll just say that it was very interesting. It was a very nice hostel and it was in the city, so it was easy to get to. But the people were interesting and from what the girls who stayed at the hostel the night before told us, sometimes the people you room with can be very unpredictable.

But now we are all back at the base and ready for another week!

My First Week in Germany!

The next day we were one our own again, able to continue settling in and catching up on sleep. Students arrived at the base throughout the day, and at about two o’clock we started our registration. Then at six, we had a barbeque as a welcome dinner for the Mobile DTS student.  After that, we had our first worship session and afterwards I could already tell that God will be doing amazing things!

Now we have started classes and we have a daily schedule. Breakfast is at seven and then we have different sessions and teachings from 8:30 – 1:30. After that we have lunch and then have daily chores. My job is preparing for the next day’s lunch in the kitchen.  Yesterday I must have diced a hundred tomatoes by hand and today I spent two hours peeling and cutting potatoes ….I am going to have much more appreciation for lunches from now on!

After our chores we have local outreach, which we haven’t started yet. But on Friday, I am going to another town to do ministry so I am very excited for that!

Our schedule for the rest of the school still hasn’t been decided, but I will be leaving for outreach (most likely somewhere outside of Europe) on December 17, so I no longer have a Christmas break…but I am looking forward to spending the holidays in a completely new culture!

Keep praying for the leaders here at the base, that they will be open to hearing God’s voice and know where we are supposed to go over the next six months. Also, pray for all the students of the Mobile DTS, that we can grow spiritually and continuing connecting with one another. Everyone gets along really well and I’ve already made several new friends. We are starting to get close as a team and it hasn’t even been a week which is amazing! We have several Germans, all with various levels of English, and many times I have been in the middle of German conversations. We also have people from England, Italy, Holland, Canada, India, and Africa. The people are really great and I can’t wait to get to know everyone here better.