Well, it’s back to the snow and cold…!! :) For those of you who haven’t seen my facebook status or heard yet…I’m home again!! I got in at 10:15p on Monday the 21st and am still working at recovering from jetlag! :S It’s so good to be home and be able to catch up with everyone again. Now it actually feels like December and Christmas--I’ve been in the Asian heat and Australia’s summer for the past couple of months so it definitely didn’t feel like Christmas was coming…but now it does!! :D I miss all of my teammates more than I thought I would but I’ve had such an amazing experience and am now ready to move on and see what God has in store for me next. But first, I’ll catch you up on my last couple weeks of outreach and briefly summarize the whole trip…

Our second week in Thailand was lots of fun! One day we went to a university across the street from our accommodation and did a bit of evangelism there. I had a pretty good conversation with two girls that spoke a little English. It was encouraging to be able to get back out communicate with some people closer to my age again. We also had another day of slum ministry—it was so much fun being able to follow-up and continue building relationships with the kids we met last week.

On Thursday morning our team of 8 took off for a weekend trip to Bangsaen which is a smaller city about an hour away from where we’re staying. We got to work with a church that’s associated with Mennonite Brethen. It was funny because I thought Mennonites were only in the States, but people in Thailand actually know what a Mennonite is, too! :) When we got there we did a program for some kids in a slum and I got to play a little bit of volleyball with some guys from the slum—they were pretty good! :D The next day we got to work with and play soccer with some people and kids from an HIV/AIDS orphanage and that evening I gave a testimony at a church service. Sunday was our last day in Bangsaen and we traveled about 1 ½ hours to a tiny, rural church outside of town, helped teach Sunday School, ate lunch with the church family and came right back to town. It was in interesting morning! :) The church we were working with had a Sunday evening service so I got to help out with their Sunday School class as well. I again realized just how much I love working with kids!

The final week was filled with evangelism at the university, worship, slum ministry and helping ARK ministry pack their office to move into a new space. It was pretty exciting to see the opportunities that God is providing for ARK. We left Thailand on December 11—I was ready to get back to Perth and then home, but I also miss Thailand and especially the people and kids we were working with.
Back in Perth, everyone was together again and the base was crowded as there is another DTS running right now. It was fun to see people and get to relax together. We had a few class sessions—teaching on re-entry into the States and home life—but it was a lot of free time so I got to go to the beach! :D

During one of our meetings, each member of my DTS took a turn telling 1. Something God has taught us over DTS, 2. Our favorite part of outreach, and 3. How this will affect the rest of our life. Something God has shown me during the past six months is just how good He really is and the necessity of trusting Him with my plans and future. No matter how much I think I’m accomplishing and how good I’m doing on my own, it’s not me. God is the one who provides for me and guides my ways and it took a long time for me to realize that and be able and willing to surrender my plans and control of my life to Him. Once I did, I saw that with Him guiding my steps, I can accomplish so much more and have a way bigger impact than I ever could have on my own.

My favorite part of outreach was being able to travel to 4 different countries and experience 2 totally different cultures. It really opened my eyes to how big the world really is—there’s so much more going on out there besides what’s in Milford and the Midwest. I also loved whenever we got an opportunity to work with kids…I especially loved being able to run basketball drills with kids in Malaysia and work with the slum ministry in Thailand. God gave me a heart for kids that I didn’t know I had.

This experience has changed me in numerous ways and I don’t think I’ll ever be the same again. Now I know and have seen what I can do when I let God take control and lead me. I’ve felt God’s love for the nations, witnessed miracles, heard God speak through numerous situations and people and seen lives touched, even through me. It’s amazing what God can do when He’s freed and allowed to work in our lives. I would encourage anyone and everyone to do a DTS—it’s an incredible experience!!

Thanks so much for keeping up with the blog—it’s been fun being able to record and share with you what’s been going on during these past few months! I’ll try to get a few more pictures posted up on facebook so keep checking that.

Love you all and God bless!!

Rachel

PS. If anyone has questions-feel free to ask… :)

Week one in Thailand...

This week has gone by crazy fast but it’s been a blast! Some good news about Thailand—they’re having their cool season right now. We got here at the perfect time-I love you, Jesus! :) The only thing is that it’s not really very cool...i would not like to experience their summer season... :S I do need to correct one thing...i’ve informed all of you that i would be in Bangkok these last few weeks but we’re actually not in the city. We’re in town/community just outside of the city about 30 minutes called RAM 2. The YWAM base is located here but they just say it’s in Bangkok because otherwise people get confused-ha! :)

So this week has been pretty busy. The first couple of days were quite a bit of orientation with YWAM Thailand, ARK International (the ministry we’re working with) and with the volunteers for the rugby camp we helped with this weekend. We did a lot of preparation work for the camp—just kind of jumped in wherever we were needed. ARK has been planning the camp for a few months now—it was supposed to be held last month, but a flood postponed it until now. God’s plans are incredible—He organized it exactly so we would be able to help out and participate. :)

The camp was for kids ages 6-18 from three different slum communities around the area. The registration fee for the camp was 20 Baht (Thai currency) which is equal to about 65 cents USD. At the camp we had crafts, games, snacks/meals, teaching and of course, rugby drills. The camp went Saturday and Sunday and it was exhausting! :D Working with kids is so much fun and so rewarding but it definitely takes something out of a person...ha! The camp this weekend was a type of introduction—a precursor—to the club that ARK wants to start up in January. So keep the Nuk Suu Tigers Rugby Club in your prayers! :)

It’s so hard to believe that my time here is already almost half over. We’ll be helping more in the coming weeks with ARK’s ministry-doing work with the kids in the slum communities will be one activity. I’ll make sure to keep you updated as much as possible. I’m getting more pictures up on Facebook so check those out if you’re in the cool crowd and have a Facebook...! ;D Sorry this week’s blog is a bit shorter...i’ll try to get you more info next week.

Love and prayers always...
Rach

Hi all!! Sorry it's been so long...i just realized that i totally forgot to blog last week!! :S These past two weeks have absolutely flown by...my team is leaving Malaysia tomorrow!! On to Bangkok, Thailand where we only have three weeks, then back to Perth for a week of report-back and then i'm headed home on the 21st!! i can't believe how fast time is going.

So last week we were up north in Perlis, Malaysia...it was funny because we were only about 10 minutes from the Thai border--our host actually took us there one day! ha! We only had 4 days of ministry in Perlis but they were packed full...mostly filled with basketball. When we started playing i realized how much i actually miss playing basketball--it was fun. :) In the mornings we went to 2 different primary (elementary) schools and ran drills with the kids. we also played a little bit of knock-out and scrimmaged. I loved working with the kids...they're so much fun and they give it their all no matter how hot it is. We were outside each morning and i don't think i've ever sweated that much in my life!! ha! But it was good. In the evenings on the first 2 days we played basketball with some older kids and adults. The evenings of the second two days was more coaching and running drills with younger kids. Friday evening--our last day--we went to the pastor's church who was hosting us and did a little presentation for them with a skit and a few testimonies. So even though our time in Perlis was short, it was lots of fun.

Saturday morning we took a bus the 5 hours back down south to Ipoh, Malaysia. We arrived at about 3:30 and at 4:00, went to talk at and lead a high school youth group. I found out about 10 minutes before we left that i was preaching...nice. :D But then it all worked out because my leader told me to put different shoes on so i went back into the house and when i came back downstairs they had left me there! haha! it was slightly amusing. The people at the house were all worked up about it but i told them not to worry b/c i was speaking so they would definitely miss me...lol!! and they did...i got there in the middle of the service and gave a nice talk on God's love, how he wants a personal relationship with us, and speaks to us in order to share His plans for our lives and for the whole world. It was fun. :)

On Sunday evening, we went to a Chinese boarding school and played volleyball and more basketball with the kids there. We shared a video of our time in Africa, did a skit, and gave a few testimonies. I think it was pretty well-received. it was funny because after we were finished, all the kids stuck around and wanted to take pictures with us and get names and emails for facebook. ha. we were pretty much like celebrities! ;D

Monday was our day off--i did laundry, went bowling, and did a little shopping at the mall. It was an amazing, relaxing day. :) Monday morning we went to another high school and played basketball and soccer with the kids. It was again nice and hot... :S :) A couple of the kids did a dance with the dragon and drums--the ones they do for the Chinese New Year. that was pretty cool to see in person...In the afternoon we did a little bit of work around the base (they just moved into the house a couple of weeks ago). We mixed and helped pour some cement...at least we had a cement mixer (Praise God)...i thought we were going to have to do it by hand for a while! ha! Tuesday and Thursday were also work days--we painted the wall surrounding the house, dug out an area so they could pour cement for a garage, and did some other cleaning things. Today is Friday--the last day...i have a little bit of free time right now...hence the blog... :) but this afternoon/evening we're going to do a program for a children's home. I'm giving a testimony about God's love and faithfulness.

...And we leave the base tomorrow morning at 4:00 to catch a bus to Kuala Lumpur and our flight leaves at 10:30a to Thailand!! I'm pretty excited about Bangkok...i know God has some amazing plans for the last 3 weeks of outreach. The real challenge will be fighting through the exhaustion--this has been an extra long outreach since we left early and i'm getting pretty ready to stop living out of a hiking backpack...so prayers for strength and endurance are much needed. :)

Thanks for all your prayer and support!! i love and miss you all!

Love, Rach

Hey again!! Another week gone... :) Malaysia has been amazing!! I think this week has been one of my favorites. The weather has been ridiculously hot and humid…it’s sick. Lol! I think this has been some of the most intense humidity I’ve ever experienced in my life. Tonight (Sunday), we went to eat by the sea and I could literally feel the water around me. Gross. ;) It is nice, though, to actually have an opportunity to be warm instead of constantly cold. My outreach team has found it amusing that I’m always cold and they now automatically offer me their jackets and sweatshirts because they know I would always want them. But I can happily say that I don’t have that problem here. Ha!

So back to the week…we got to Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday and traveled the four hours by bus to Penang. We got to the YWAM base and carried our luggage up the lovely seven flights of stairs :S. We spent that evening just relaxing and getting settled in. Wednesday was our free day/orientation. Penang is an extremely interesting city—there are numerous people groups located in the area. The main ones are Indian, Chinese and Malay which makes for some AMAZING food!! On Wednesday, a YWAM staff member took us to his favorite Indian restaurant. It was one of the most incredible meals I’ve ever had!! Our plate was a banana leaf and we got a portion of rice with a couple of different sauces, sweet potato, okra and a portion of meat. I had mutton and it was so tasty. The best part was that we ate it all with our hands-so amusing!! :) Besides an incredible food selection, there’s also quite a spread of religions. On the tour of the city we got we visited a mosque, a Hindu temple and a Chinese temple. Malaysia is about 52% Muslim with only 8% Christian. All of the different religions definitely create a stronghold over this area.

Thursday was our first day of ministry. We started out with some street evangelism around the base—we mostly went to the temples. Then in the afternoon, we got to play floorball (basically floor hockey). It’s pretty new to Malaysia still, but the church we worked with this week, Gateway City Church, is starting a sports ministry that emphasizes floorball. In the evening, we went to a park and evangelized to people who were exercising or hanging out there. Friday was more floorball and then a prayer meeting at the church. Saturday we got up and did some more evangelism at the park, played futsal (indoor soccer) and even more floorball! Lol! Needless to say, we have all been exhausted this whole week. :D On Saturday evening, we were able to do a skit and share a couple testimonies and a word with the kids we were playing sports with so that was a lot of fun.

Today was our last day of ministry and I went with part of our team to a Methodist church here in the city. We went to the 9:00a service because we were supposed to be back at the base at noon, but then we discovered that we didn’t have to be back, so we stayed for the contemporary service at 11:00…which turned out to be basically the same service. Ha! We had a little bit of free time after lunch and then left for the Gateway service at 4:00. We got to spend some time there at the church and went out to eat afterward with some of the members of the church and the people we had worked with. I can’t believe I’m leaving tomorrow!! I’ve really loved our ministry and time here and wish I could stay longer…I really enjoy the atmosphere and the busyness of Penang. One of my favorite parts (and it could be just because I’ve missed it for so long) is that even at 10:00 at night, there are still things going on and people out and about. In Australia and Africa, everything has shut down by 5:00. It’s sad! Haha. I also love the diversity of the city—how there are so many different types of people, activities, foods, etc. It’s incredible. If you ever get a chance to come to southeast Asia, make sure you stop in Penang—it’s amazing! :D

Tomorrow my team is headed up north to Perlis where we’ll be for about 5 days. I think it’s more of a rural area so we’ll have to see what type of ministry we’ll be doing. It’s also a mostly Muslim area so I’m excited to see what types of things God has planned for us there. Continue to pray for strength and energy for me and the rest of my team as well as soft hearts to be able to hear God and His plans clearly. I miss you all and think of you…

Love and prayers,
Rachel

Malaysia here I come!! :D This past week was the last few days in Swaziland. After our free day on Tuesday, we had Wednesday-Friday of ministry. Wednesday this week was pretty much the only nice day—the others were cold, wet and rainy. Seriously…this has not been Africa! Haha.

Wednesday and Thursday were both work days at the base—we painted the front wall and gatehouse, scrapped more mold and paint off of the house and cleaned the base really well. Friday was also rainy, but we got to get off of the base-yay! :) We worked with a ministry called Children’s Cup. They have 19 locations throughout Swaziland and are continuing to expand. The locations consist of a building with 2 classrooms, some playground equipment, an outdoor stove/cooking area and a restroom. They serve 2 meals a day and serve as a sort of safe house for kids at risk or really just any kids who need somewhere to go during the day (8a-4p). Each locations has 2-3 teachers on staff who school kids grades K-3rd. These 4 years get completed for free in 2 years. We got to go to 2 different locations-at the first we played games and just hung out with the kids and we also helped the staff serve lunch (beans and rice). At the second locations we hung out with the kids for a little and then performed a skit and had a little bit of teaching on being a friend and trusting. It was a lot of fun. God has continued to reveal to me over and over just how big his heart is for the people and especially the children of Swaziland. I think Friday with the kids was my favorite day of ministry so far! :D

Something that God has really been emphasizing to me personally over the last week is that He loves me…a lot. He just wants me to be able to relax in His presence and into His arms. As you know, I’ve been struggling throughout this DTS and outreach with trust and letting God take full control of my future, etc. I want to do what He wants for my life—to follow His plan—but I’m always worried that I’m going to miss or I’m not going to hear what He has for me and I’ll be trying to do my own thing and fail miserably. This past week, God has really just shown me that whatever I do and wherever I go, He will bless me and He will use me. Also, if I’m not walking in blatant disobedience to His will, I probably just need to relax into the arms of my loving Father and live my life for Him.

God speaks how and when He chooses…not when or how I want Him to. I just need to be patient, make sure that my heart is staying soft toward God and continue to pursue an intimate friendship and relationship with Him. That’s really the main thing He wants from each of us as believers—an intimate friendship where we turn to Him and rely on Him in every situation—not just when we’re in trouble or times are hard. That sounds like it should be so simple, but I think it’s actually one of the most difficult things for me (to have that intimate friendship and continuous communication with God throughout the day). I want it to be something visible—to be able to see the results and the progress, but it’s a process-one that takes patience, perseverance and time. It’s a day-by-day walk that’s sometimes hard and frustrating. But in the end, it’s the best thing there is. A monk named Brother Lawrence put it pretty clearly—“There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful than that of a continual conversation with God. Those only can comprehend it who practice and experience it.” Man, what a challenge… and man, what a sermon-ha! Back to the week… :)

Today we left the base and Swaziland and took a Kombie (a taxi van) across the border to Johannesburg, South Africa. We’re now staying at Joseph Project—a YWAM base here in the city. It’s funny because we are staying here with another team that’s on outreach and it happens to be the DTS from YWAM Swaziland (where we just came from)!! So a couple of the guys on my team are sharing stories with the Swaziland team about the staff there and the animals they have. It’s quite amusing. :) We got to the base around 2:30p and just hung out the rest of the day—caught up with the other have of our DTS.

Our flight leaves Monday and we head to Singapore and then on to Kuala Lumpaar, Malaysia. We’ll be there for three weeks as a whole DTS (15 of us instead of just my team of 8). We’ll be traveling to three different communities, working with each place for a week. Those weeks will go by so quickly!! :) Prayers for safety are welcomed... :D Love you all so much and miss you tons! May God bless you abundantly this week!!

Love, Rach

Hello all!! Another week gone…it’s going so quickly-I can’t believe it! I have three more days here in Swaziland and then I’m off to Malaysia. This past week we were pretty busy but there wasn’t as much door-to-door evangelism. Part of it was the crazy Swaziland weather…we always make fun of how the Nebraska weather changes quickly but this is insane! Haha. On Wednesday, it was hot and beautiful—I actually got sun-burned! :) The next day was rainy and cold the entire day—we were living in a cloud! And the exact same thing happened on Sunday. We left for the church we attended this week at about 10:00 and the ¾ mile walk was hot—I was actually sweating by the time we got there. When we were preparing to leave at about 1:00, a storm was rolling in and we got soaked on the way back. It was crazy!! :D

Anyway, ministry this week…on Wednesday we worked here at the base—the boys dug a latrine that is 7.5 feet deep—it’s a massive hole! Lol. I helped clean out a room and scrape walls so it can be painted for a staff room for the base staff. On Thursday it was rainy and such, so we went to visit the government hospital in Mbabane again. God revealed to me that I have a passion for children and people who are hurting and weak. I felt a calling toward some kind of therapy—not sure if it’s physical or emotional (counseling) but I’m pretty excited to see how that plays out. I think part of the reason I’m so soft-hearted toward those who are sick and hurting is because of Jess. I’m seeing more every day just how amazing she is—she has the highest pain tolerance of anyone I know and she never complains. You’re incredible, Jess, and I love you so much!! :D After the hospital, we did a little street evangelism at one of the main shopping areas in the city.

Friday morning was base work again—we scrubbed mold off of the property’s front wall and gate. It was lovely…ha! In the afternoon we went out and were going to do some open-air teaching and evangelizing, but the battery for our sound system died and then it started raining so that kind of flopped. :S But we had an incredible brie (barbeque) with chicken, pork, sausages and wildebeest! The wildebeest was pretty interesting to say the least… :D. Saturday was another hot day—we hosted and helped run a soccer tournament in a near-by town. Our YWAM team got third place…out of 4 teams ha! Desiree and I didn’t play soccer but we were in charge of passing out snacks and drinks. There were probably around 60 or 70 people there. We had 24 loaves of bread and a couple jars of jam so we made jam sandwiches for the players. After we ran out of jam with about 10 loaves left, we also ran out of sliced bread…so we started ripping pieces off. People just kept coming and it felt like the feeding of the 5,000—it was awesome!! Haha. That was a pretty exhausting day but it was tons of fun. :)

Sunday was church day—we went to a church that’s about 6 months old and has about 15 members. They meet in a hut attached to the back of someone’s house. The walls are cardboard and there isn’t enough room inside the hut for everyone so they have a tarp up with about 16 more chairs set up underneath that. It was amazing. I’ll try to get some pictures up sometime soon-I promise!! There was a lot of worship—Africa loves worship. :) Desiree gave a short testimony and then I got to preach! :D I felt like God was telling me to encourage them and give them hope for growth. The scriptures I used were Colossians 1:3-12 and Hebrews 12:1-2. It was actually pretty fun and I bet I’ll get to do it again sometime in the next few weeks. Yesterday was another cold, nasty day and we again scrubbed mold off of the front gate and also in a house that they’re trying to fix up. This property was once amazing…it’s a bummer that it sat for about six years and went to junk. :( Again, I’ll work on taking pictures and getting them up on facebook!

There have definitely been some interesting experiences here in Swaziland—it’s been so good! I’ll be sad to leave here in a couple days but excited to see what else is in store for this adventure! God has continually revealed things to me, both about Himself and about me as well. He is continually working on my trust in Him—He wants to show me His goodness and His intense love for me without me worrying about what’s in store for me. It’s tough but growth is so good! :D Continue to be malleable and allow God to work in and through you!

Love and prayers,
Rachel

Sawubona (hello in Swati) ;D I’m in Swaziland and have been for the past week. This is definitely more “Africa” than South Africa was but it’s still pretty modern. We’re staying at the small YWAM base located in the capital Mbabane. The base is actually a homestead that’s located on top of a mountain—with an awesome view of the city!! It’s gorgeous. The base has only been here for about 3 months so things are still being worked on…no internet access…until a few days after we leave anyway..!! :S (oh well. :)) There’s no shower—yay for bucket showers!! Ha! And there’s no hot water—we have to boil water for showers, etc. I’d say it’s a little like camping—I’m sleeping on the floor and there are multiple bugs that like to find their way into our sleeping area…I don’t really appreciate that… ;D. But even though the living conditions are a bit rough, we’ve had some wonderful experiences.

We’ve been staying pretty busy doing ministry every day. Each day we’ve done at least a little bit of door-to-door evangelism. We’ve talked to and encouraged quite a few people and it’s actually been so encouraging for me as well. The team has seen some amazing things done through us with God’s power—we’ve had about 10 salvations, one blind man could see and a lame man was healed as well. It’s so awesome when those miracles happen because it’s definite confirmation that God is working through us and stirring in people’s hearts. Besides door to door ministry we’ve performed a few dramas—one at an elementary school’s morning assembly, two at a couple of different churches and one for a group of people we were working with on Saturday. Dramas are almost a necessity here in Africa…they think it’s pretty lame if you aren’t performing some kind of song, dance or skit so those are always fun. :D
On Thursday the team went to an area to do some door-to-door evangelism and we ended up driving on a horribly bumpy dirt road for about 15 minutes to the middle of nowhere and hiking about 45 minutes up a mountain to a tiny one-room church where we then proceeded to clean up the inside of the church and dig away grass from the building in a 3 foot radius around the church—I was wearing a skirt. Ha! After cleaning up around the church, we discovered that about 12 people were going to gather for a church service that we ended up leading. Needless to say, it was an interesting day…and we’re going back next Thursday!

Even though I’m not in lectures, God is still speaking to me and I’m still learning—maybe even more than I was during lectures. For example, I’ve decided that it’s totally worth it to give everything to God—my family, future, life, etc, so I surrender it daily to Him. I still have to do it daily and some days are harder than others, but I know that if I give Him control, He won’t let me fall. Another thing that God revealed to me today was in Proverbs 13:25 and Psalm 36:8. Both of these verses talk about how God provides continuous food and water for those who trust in Him—we’ll never hunger or thirst if we continue to seek Him and take from those reservoirs. But the only way to stay nourished is if we take from it freely. I have issues with this concept because I always feel like I have to be doing something—I have to be reading my Bible or praying or asking for forgiveness, etc. I don’t feel like I deserve to have that without doing anything for God in return, but that’s exactly how it is. God just wants us—He wants our devotion, our surrender, our time, our love, but we can’t do anything that’s of value to Him. I hope that makes sense…it does in my head anyway. :D I just have such a hard time wrapping my head around it. Mark 10:15 says, “I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will not enter it.” Kids love getting gifts and they receive without guilt or remorse—they don’t feel like they have to give something back-they just joyfully receive. So basically if I don’t learn how to simply accept what God has given me, I’m missing out. If I’m always trying to give back, I’m missing out on the joy and the gifts that God has for me. Like I said, I’m still finding things that I need to work on. :)

Today is our free day so I’m trying to get all of my internet stuff done for the week…you can probably expect another blog about this time next week. I hope this updates you a little on what’s going on with me…I’m having a blast and learning so much—especially how blessed I really am. Today I went into a home where 6 women were raising 2 babies…the house was one room and it was smaller than my bedroom. There was basically a dresser, a tv, a couple of benches and a bed—we’ve all been extremely blessed.

I hope your week is going great, you’ll hear from me soon… :D

Love, Rachel

Ahhh…last week of lectures. It was a tough one. For those of you who read my email update, this may be a lot of the same thing, but that’s okay. :) The topic this week was Lordship. That’s definitely a tough one…surrendering everything to God and letting Him take control of my life is so hard for me—and I’m sure I’m not alone. :) I asked God at the beginning of the week to let this be a big week—I asked Him to break my heart. He didn’t let me down-ha!

Some key points: I have control issues. These control issues lead to trust issues. This lack of trust has been hindering my relationship and holding me back from the deeper intimacy I could have with my Father. And…it will continue until I figure out how to surrender things. Haha...oh I love having such problems. :S Basically, I like to know what’s going on—where I’ll be in the future, what I’ll be doing. Since I don’t know where or what God wants me doing, I feel powerless and out of control which leads to a lack of trust. I’m scared that God will call me somewhere remote, solitary and horrible and that I’ll hate it. As you can probably see, this poses a slight dilemma. :D I’m closer to complete surrender than I was at the beginning of this week, but I definitely still have some work to do. Really, it’s a daily choice—to pick up my cross, to decide to let Him be in control and to follow Him. I learned some key things this week that I will definitely look back on in the future.

One thing that really struck me was our speaker’s quote, “If Jesus is not Lord of all in my life, he is not Lord at all.” He gave an excellent illustration with this—think about a bottle of pure, clean water—but this water has one drop of sewer water in it. Would you want to drink it?? Our lives our like that…we can be 99% devoted to God and give Him almost everything...but that one tiny percent is what holds Jesus back—that makes all the difference in how much freedom-how much room He has to shape and form our lives to where we can be used by Him. Pretty powerful…

Another thing that stood out to me was when the speaker stated that the most fulfilling life I could possibly live is one of complete surrender. Basically, I could get back from DTS, finish school, get a job, get married and have a family, be involved in a church, etc. but if that wasn’t God’s plan for me—if I wasn’t surrendered to Him and His perfect ways, it wouldn’t be fulfilling to me. I would always feel like there was something more. That’s pretty hard for me to fathom because right now I feel like I have a pretty good life, but thinking about it…how much better could it be? How much more could God give me or show me? I won’t know until I give it all to Him—until I trust Him with my family or future location. That’s something I’m still working on but I think I’d rather just go for it and see what God can do with this short life instead of trying to stumble around and figure it out myself.

Lordship stinks. That’s another thing I’ve learned this week. :D This has definitely been the hardest week of my lecture phase, but when I look back on it I think it will be one of the best, if not the very best. I’m thankful for the pain and the struggles because that means I’m actually getting somewhere.

My team leaves for Swaziland tomorrow. We have a lovely 27 hour train ride to Johannesburg, SA and from there we will take a van into Swaziland for the next three weeks of outreach. I’m really unsure about internet access there but I will continue to blog and update all of you as soon as possible. Please keep me in your prayers as you are in mine. Missing you…

Rachel

Hey everyone! It’s now October 3 (this date is actually right) :D The past two weeks have been pretty crazy, busy, exciting, etc. all at once! Ha! The last full week in September was still outreach in Cape Town. We had a day off on Monday and I went with some friends to a neighboring suburb called Wyneburg. We did a little exploring and got a tiny bit of internet time. :) The rest of the week was filled with continuing to work with our church’s youth group and evangelizing in the community around the church. We connected with the other half of our DTS for a couple of days and on Friday we ran a soccer tournament with them. My team performed the Lifehouse drama (check YouTube) after the soccer tournament and explained how the skit depicted our relationship with Christ and what He did for us. It was a pretty good experience and I’m sure we’ll be sharing that skit with many more people in the coming weeks! :)

This past week was spent in Muizenberg which is a suburb of Cape Town, approximately 25 minutes from where we were at Pastor Andre’s house. We’re finishing up our lecture phase at the YWAM base here and this week’s topic was Missions. It was a very challenging week, especially for me. The very first night, our speaker talked about how we think that we have to have some kind of electrical feeling about something before we obey or listen to God, but that’s not how the kingdom of God works. We basically have two options: 1. To live in my safe zone-in what I know and what’s familiar. In this area we are secure and we know our surroundings, but God is limited—He can’t work in a confined place like that. OR 2. We can step out into the risk zone-the area where God is allowed to work in our lives, to make things interesting, to grow us in Him. This is the place where God is…this is where life goes from being dull and boring, to exhilarating and exciting. It was pretty challenging because I know that I’ve been praying for God to change my heart and to work miracles in and with me, but I’ve wanted to stay in my safe zone. I’ve been wanting to hold on to my family, friends and all that is familiar and comfortable at home, but I know that if I’m trying to control my future and where I go, I’m limiting God and the things he can do with my life. Wow. So I decided to give it all to him. I decided that no matter where God takes me in the future, it will be amazing and I will be happy because God’s plans for me are way more exciting than any plans that I could even THINK of on my own!

One other thing that really stood out to me this week was the fact that I can be a good student, a good leader, a good teacher, doctor, lawyer, mother, etc…but unless I step out into my risk zone and give EVERYTHING to God, I’ll be useless and irrelevant. Without Him leading me, I’ll just be floundering around hoping that I can make some impact on my own. But seriously…why not trust him?? He knows me better than I know myself—He know my passions and desires that I don’t even know yet (but that I’m hoping He’ll reveal to me sometime in the coming weeks… :D), and the best part…He cares about my future more than I do! That blows my mind but is also so comforting at the same time. On this topic, the verse Romans 12:2 is pretty relevant. The will of God and what He has for my life is enjoyable, pleasing, perfect and FUN!! It’s not sad or painful or horrible or lonely like the devil makes it seem…it’s actually a happy thing to “take up our cross and follow Him.” Because since Jesus has already taken up His (and our) cross—and triumphed over it (Col 2:15), it’s now available to us as a weapon against Satan…it’s joyful! :D

Anyway, I hope you liked that sermon..ha! It’s now the weekend and it’s beautiful outside!! Since I’m staying approximately 100 feet from the waterfront, I think I’m going to spend the rest of the afternoon there! Heehee! Apparently this weekend there’s a big thing going on and they’re trying to break the world record for how many people ride one wave…something over 100 I believe. I’ll try to fill you in on that one later. :) I hope you all have a great week, I’m praying for you and love and miss you all,

Rachel

[This is the blog from September 21…] How’sit? (that’s South African for ‘how are you?’-- :D) This is the first time I’ve had internet in a week so I thought I would take this time to update all of you and let you know what’s going on and tell you just how much I miss all of you! :D This week has been pretty busy…but it’s been good. My team of 9 is still in Cape Town, SA doing outreach. We’re working with a church called Spirit of Grace Church in a suburb called Parkwood. It’s a little bit of a rougher neighborhood, especially at night but we’ve stayed safe and I’ve felt pretty secure the whole week, which is always good. ;D The area of Parkwood is 1.2 square miles and approximately 80,000 people live there. Needless to say, it’s packed with people. One of the men from the church told us that usually about 20 people live together in a one room apartment and about 30 are in a two room flat. I can’t even wrap my brain around that!! This area is pretty heavily burdened—we can actually feel a heaviness when we’re in the region. There is an excessive amount of drug and alcohol abuse in Parkwood especially with the young people—a lot of them drop out of school too. It’s sad, but it’s good to be here and to have my eyes opened even more to the things of the world.

We’re staying at the Pastor’s house in a small apartment he built in his garage. It’s definitely an interesting experience learning to live in such a small area with 8 other people—6 of them being boys… :S ha! We have one bathroom which sometimes gets interesting, especially with the shower situation. I guess I’m just thankful that everyone is actually showering!! Lol! We buy our own groceries and cook our own meals—we’ve had some pretty good dinners so far. Most days for lunch we pack cold meat sandwiches that we eat at the church. Tonight we actually got to have a brie (a SA barbeque) with the pastor’s family and a few friends. We had borewors (sausages), chicken and lamb chops—very good!

This week has consisted of a few different things—the church had their 10 year anniversary this weekend so they had a crusade which was basically a big celebration consisting of 3 different services on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We helped some this week with setting up for that—decorating the church, handing out fliers, etc. We did some street evangelism a couple of afternoons—just walking around Parkwood, talking to people. I had a couple of good conversations with people, got to pray for a couple of people, and played with lots of kids. It’s amazing how open and friendly the people are here—EVERYONE says hi to each other and they’re willing to invite you into their home even though they’ve only just met you 3 minutes ago…nothing like the States. :D There are a lot of Muslims around the Parkwood area so there have been a couple of good conversations there as well.
Wednesday and Thursday evenings, a local church was also having some type of crusade so we went to support them in that—I actually gave a testimony on Thursday about what God has been doing in my life throughout DTS, especially with trust and learning to turn everything over to Him. It was good to get up and speak—not really my favorite thing to do, but I’ll probably be doing that a lot during the next few months. ha.

The weather here has been warming up—spring has sprung! :D We got to take a little break on Saturday and make a trip to the beach. It was perfect!!-exactly what I needed. I can’t wait to show you pictures—I’ll try to get some up on Facebook next week. Hopefully it continues to warm up…by the time I get to Malaysia I’ll be complaining and sweating my pants off, but for right now… ;D.
God is continuing to show me things and reveal Himself to me which is amazing…I want that desire for Him always. I never want to stop seeking Him or wanting to know more—that’s my constant prayer. I’ll try to write next week again as we have lectures for a couple of weeks and should have a more stable/constant internet. Please keep me in your prayers as you are in mine…I love you all…may God bless you abundantly!

Rach

A scripture from my quiet time yesterday…something to think about… :D James 1:22-25