Final Remarks

It has been a great experience and its amazing it is over now. The five months went by faster than I could have imagined but I am ready for the next steps ahead. Going into my time abroad I was very frustrated with the Lord and had no clear direction for my life but since going on the DTS the Lord has really blessed me and opened multiple opportunities for me. God has really showed me how to trust him and he made himself real to me through different experiences including the holy spirit week. Although I did have a lot of fun I also had a great time serving the Lord. I would say my favorite thing for my time away was the story about the hippo and also about talking to people in the restaurant. God has blessed me a lot and I hope that I will be able to continue to walk with the Lord. My time has allowed me to see many things about Christianity and was able to look at it from different perspectives. Now that my time at YWAM is finished it is time to look to the future. While on my DTS it seemed the Lord had given me three options: go to Australia to staff a YWAM backpacking DTS, lead a hiking ministry for college aged kids in Seatle, or to attend Graduate school to get my masters in International Care and Community Development. Although I was leaning towards the hiking ministry in Seattle, I feel that going to school will open so many doors for me (hopefully somewhere like World Vision) and God may later on have me do the hiking ministry on the side. I want to thank all of you who have contributed to my amazing time in YWAM Lesotho. Your prayers and contributions have allowed me to be blessed as much as I was. So again I thank you for all your support and keeping up with reading my blog. I hope you have enjoyed reading through my story and I hope it has blessed you as much as it has blessed me. I can't wait till see where God takes me next!

Debriefing Week

It’s amazing that this is the last week. I will be on a plane in only a few days but it has been an amazing journey. During the first few days of the week we had a speaker come in to talk to us about returning home. For the first two days we where taught about how to go about telling our story to those to ask and how to explain in 30 seconds, 2 minutes, and 15 minutes what we did and how we have been affected. For Monday and Tuesday we had the pleasant surprise of having Marie stay with us again (she was the student that didn't come on outreach to work at a orphanage.) It was great to catch up with her and to swap stories. It seemed quickly apparent that it was for the better that she didn't come on outreach for she was able to do some amazing things in the corporate world and it allowed our team to open up more and grow together (especially Joy which was her best friend). This last week was fairly hard on me because I had gotten to the point where all of us where ready to go home and ready to get away from each other. Although I enjoyed my time, I was ready to be with my friends and family once again and in 7 days that would be a reality. On Tuesday we had more classes on telling our story and during the day we very bored. There isn't to much to do in Maseru so we just played a lot of the card game Uno and would go to movies at the theater (only 2 dollars too!) and try to watch the important World Cup games in this empty room in the mall that they made into an impromptu bar. On Wednesday, our last day of lectures, our speaker talked about what we where going to do next in our lives and how to plan for it. He told us that we need to put less pressure on ourselves about our calling and to look at what our desires are, education, and that the Lord will lead us toward the area he wants us to be in. It took a lot of pressure off me to not have to have an obvious, in your face, calling and that God can put opportunities in front of you and will give you the skills to be successful in that and to glorify God in that. I have always felt that the Lord would be obvious with me and in some ways was hoping he would just literally telling, do this, but now I see that he has given me some unique gifts and opportunities and he will lead me towards something but it may not be as obvious as I would like. As I went to pray after that God seemed to put on my heart to go ahead with doing a ministry with college students in the outdoors. This would include taking these guys on camping trips, rock climbing, and disciple them. It was great to feel that the Lord wants me to do something that seems so fun and exciting. Although I am going to take a lot more time of praying and asking for confirmation it seemed right. That afternoon was definitely the high of the week but what happen after that would definitely be the low. Soon after we as a group tried to talk to our base leader about getting clarity and transparency of how the finances where being used and it created some tension for the rest of the week. The back-story is that at times during the DTS we had asked for clarity on the finances and he wouldn't give us a budget. Other times he put a student in charge of the finances for the outreach phase and she was asking him about the finances and he got very defensive and walked away. Since he wasn't around very much and acted fussy about the money it created a barrier between the students and the base leader. He also mentioned that if we saved money for outreach we could use some of it to go out to eat during the last week and so we asked him about that. When we sat down with him he was very offended that we even asked about the finances and stormed out and created a tension filled last week. It took a second meeting with other staff members and a mediator to finally help resolve the broken relationship. I had a chance if I wanted to ask once again about the money and see if we could get the extra back, as many other bases had done if there was money left over, but after praying and talking to a few people I felt God wanted me to let it go. I have been blessed a lot and I realized the money wasn't mine anyways it was God's money. Although the last week was very tense with our leader we tried to make the best out of it by relaxing and enjoying our last week together as students. Wednesday afternoon we went to go buy these blankets that the people from Lesotho make...very beautiful and warm! On Thursday we all went to some chick flick that although wasn't very good it was filmed in Seattle and it made me very excited to go home! On Friday we where able to relax a little after our talk with Nathan about the finances was over (as I mentioned earlier), and we where able to enjoy watching a few fifa games that night. I would say at around Friday and Saturday I really just wanted to get out of there...the maturity level of these fellow students where getting to me. They would blow those vuvuzellas (the horns you hear during the World Cup games) in the house and right next to me. After multiple times asking them to stop, I couldn't handle it anymore and just wanted to leave. On a more positive note I was able to enjoy the last few days by watching a movie every night. One night we watched toy Story 3, another a pirated version of x-men origins (yeah we got it from the movie rental store...only in Africa) and another night I watched Stranger than fiction. On Saturday we had our graduation and although it was small it was great to finally be done with the DTS and at this point there where only 2 days left before we headed home. It was also nice to be out from under some of the DTS rules which I felt where a little ridiculous (no one of the opposite sex could give someone a backrub, among others.) On Saturday and Sunday night we had our first beer since the start of the DTS and it was against the rules. Although I didn't have that much since I only feel its good to do it in moderation it was still nice to feel somewhat normal again. In Lesotho you have to put deposits down to be able to take any glass beer bottles out of the bar and so when we finished them we went back to return them and ended up having a few wonderful conversations with the local crowd. It was fun to have one last interaction with the locals before I headed home. People in Lesotho are so friendly and it will be weird to not say hello to everyone I meet on the street. Finally Monday came and although I had been packed basically all week it was finally time to actually go. I said goodbye to everyone and headed to the airport. I happened to be on the same plane all the way to D.C. with Josh, one of the fellow students, and it allowed the flights home to be a little easier. I first flew from Maseru to Jo-burg on a 1-hour flight, and then had a 5-hour layover. I then boarded a plane to D.C. with a 1-hour stop for gas in Senegal at 1am.awesome... The next day I took a plane from D.C. to Seattle and after 24 hours of flight time (not counting layovers and time change) I was finally home. As I flew over Seattle I pointed out my parents house and was ready for the next adventure in my life. In the next post I will talk about what is next and how God has blessed me on this DTS.

Rustenburg, South Africa Week 2

So week two in Rustenburg was great. On Monday the other people on my team went back to martha's house to do the feeding program but I went with the base leader to go to a soccer camp. The whole day I took about half, 20 or so, of these kids that showed up for this free soccer camp. Most of the kids went to the school next to the soccer field. The ages ranged from 8 to 14 and we tried to usual split the older kids up with the younger kids. Most of the kids lived in the small shacks that surround the soccer field. The reason they where having a soccer camp was that a bank in Germany decided to donate a lot of money to build a small field turf field for the kids to enjoy and it was our job to put together a soccer camp before they arrived and to also talk to them after the camp about life lessons like tell the authorities or parents when bad things happen, etc. Anyways, the first day of the soccer camp I took half of the kids and just winged it. I have never coached any soccer camps so I just went of my previous knowledge and what I had to do as a kid when I played. It was so fun! It was hard at times to think of things to do but eventually I got used to it and really got the hang of it. After the soccer camp I went back to marthas where the rest of the team was and played with the kids there for a bit then we usually just relaxed after that which made the week fairly easy. On Tuesday I went back to the soccer camp and this time the rest of the team came to help me out with the camp. The guys helped do the soccer camp and the girls helped with netball...which is basically a mix between ultimate frisbie and basketball. On wednesday we went back to martha's house and did the usual program that we did the week before. I also played a lot of soccer with the kids there as well so this whole week included a lot of soccer...which was awesome! On thusday we went back to the soccer camp and after doing a normal set of drills...which I mainly had them do passing drills (africans seem to like to dribble a lot and shoot a lot..so i just had them pass)... they finally got to play on the new field turf field that the germans paid for. Before they had been playing on the dirt field next to it but for at least a little bit that day they got to play a scrimmage and I was a referee for a bit. I couldn't handle it anymore and after one of the kids left I went in a played awww I missed playing! That night we went to the Japan vs. Denmark World Cup match. Martha's house had been given a lot of tickets from sony to go to the game and Martha gave some of them to us so we got to go to the game for free!!! I rooted for Japan which won 3-1 and it was an overall great game...so much fun. It had been a dream of mine to go to a game and finally I had my chance! We soon realized at the game that the U.S. was going ot play in the same stadium on saturday..the same day we planned on leaving.. I got so excited and pleaded that we could stay one more day! On friday we did more of a soccer camp and at one point they weren't listening to me so I almost made them do sprints but after they listened up I let them play a fun game. Soon after I said goodbye to all the kids and also at Martha's house. After that, and much pleading, we headed to the fifa ticket office (there was so much security!) to get our tickets for the U.S. game. They only had category 2 tickets which where about 130 dollars. At first the ones that where interested said no, except me of course! Soon after Josh one of my teammates said sure I will go with you and we quickly ran back to get the tickets. Soon after I was suppose to go on a blind date but it was canceled so my south african blind date experience never happened haha. That night we where invited to the base leader of Rustenburg's house. We ended up just relaxing and watching Gladiator. The next day was game day...I was so excited..I was going to a U.S. game!!!! After cleaning up the house and doing facepaint (which we only could find fingerpaint but we went with it) we also painted our white undershirts. When we got to the game we had about 30 different random people want our picture. We also had the New York Post amoung other journalists take our picture. As we waited around for the game to start josh and myself got interviewed by about 4 or 5 tv channels..many of which where spanish countries...random! I also saw ESPN and ran over to be in the background so if anyone saw me let me know haha. I never felt so famous with all this attention! As we sat down we quickly realized that everyone except us and a few U.S. fans where all going for Ghana. This also included the English fans that where behind us that bought tickets thinking their team was going to play but they didn't. So all the English fans where trying to piss us off my yelling in our ear, "Go Ghana." The game itself didn't go the way I would have liked, obviously, but it was great to go to a world cup game and see the U.S. play...it has been a dream of mine to do!!!! After the game as I was walking to the bus another channel interviewed me and knowing I was repersenting all U.S. fans I tried to be as cordial as possible and I wished Ghana the best and the continent of Africa eventhough I didn't really want to. I soon found out that the channel was SABC which is the largest South African TV channel. So I was broadcasted all over the country haha. On Sunday we just got ready and headed out. We soon found out on the way home that the car was leaking antifreeze and we had to keep filling the radiator with water. It was hard to get home but eventually we made it to Lesotho. It is quite weird to be back but am looking forward to getting home now! In only a week I will be back in Seattle!