Team Philippines!

So since the last time I posted we have had a team member added giving us a grand total of four students. We also have also chosen where we'll be going in the Philippines: Manila, Bagio, and Olongapo. In Manila we will be doing slum ministry and also children's ministry, teaching curriculum during a 50th year of YWAM celebration. In Bagio we will be doing a followup visit to a town struck by mudslides that the last team had visited. We will also be the main speakers during two Discipleship Training Weeks which are basically very very condensed DTS's. Olongapo is a fairly new destination for our outreach teams and they focus on getting women and girls out of the prostitution industry. It will be a very varied outreach as far as ministries, and I'm sure we will be doing far more.

I have started a "gospel choir" with three of the members of my team ( so really it's more like a quartet"). We sing mostly songs I learned from choir in high school. It's been a lot of fun and something kind of new.

The speakers for this quarter have been awesome. Right now we have Tom Osterhaus, base director of YWAM Maui, speaking on Biblical World View. He is excellent speaker who is able to get everyone thinking.

This is the team: Danielle, Håkon, Cortney, Chelsea, Me, Megan

Our car broke down on the side of a highway on our way to go BBQ at a beach.

Since we new it would take well over an hour for another car to come rescue, we had our grill on the side of the highway.

Outreach!

So outreach locations have been announced and decided! My co-leader Chelsea and I will be taking a team of 3 students to the PHILIPPINES! It's been a bit tough to keep it a secret from all the students for the past 3 weeks, but we have made it. There will also be another team going to Bangladesh with 7 students. So thats it! Be praying for my small team that we can bond and unify so we are ready to go to the Philippines in April!

Here we go again!

It has been an amazing start to the DTS this year. We have 10 students, two if which are guys and that is a huge answer to prayer. For this January quarter we decided to introduce an "Exodus". We surprised the students with a camping trip with a limited supplies list, each had a buddy they had to stay within arms distance of, and they did not know how long it would be. It was extremely need to see these people be challenged and pushed in ways they never had been. One of the best parts was we were able to stay at Kualoa ranch (where LOST, and Jurassic Park were filmed) in exchange for doing some work for the ranch. One day we had a five and a half hour hike, and the next we worked in a taro field weeding and planting. It was hard work but fun at the same time. We ended the trip with a feast back at base where each student had there feet washed and prayed for by a staff member. It was an awesome time of openness and brought the school to a level that usually takes weeks to get to.

Teams are being decided next week, so I'll be able to tell you more about that at that time. For now however I am trying to study Romans to be able to teach in Bible Reading over the next several weeks, I am also on the events crew this semester which has been going well.

Thank you everyone for your support!!!

ALOHA

I finally made it back to Hawaii several days ago after a brief, but fun time in Beijing. Beijing is really different from Xining. First off, there is a lot more English writing everywhere, second there is an awesome subway that can take you anywhere, third, everything is really expensive. It was a really good time of relaxing and debriefing before we go home. Here in Hawaii we are continuing the debriefing with the students, preparing them for what they might go through when they go home. I only have another 3 days here, then I'm off to Vancouver for a week to visit my sister, brother in law, and a couple good friends. I get back to Edmonton the 16th and I am so excited to see everyone.

Thank you to all my supporters for making this China trip possible through prayers and funds. This trip has made a deep impact on me especially, but I'll tell you more about that once I get home.

From China's City of Summer....

I can't believe I have less than two weeks left in China! It' has been an absolute privilege to be able to come here and try our best to bless the people already here. Everyone here is so hospitable and willing to go completely out of there way to help each other out.
We were able to to make it out to Xiahe a couple weeks ago, which was a great experience. Unfortunately the weather was not being cooperative and we weren't able to go on further like I wanted to. This week we are helping out at an English camp that our friends are putting on here.
We leave for Beijing in just over a week. We were told that train tickets go on sale 10 days before the date of departure. The problem is we didn't know whether this was actually ten days before the date, or ten days before including the date of departure (does that make sense?.) We wanted to leave on the 26th so I assumed that we should be there the 16 to get tickets. We arrived at around 6:20am, assuming not many people would be there, however this was not the case. The inside station was so full that a long line had already started outside. Soon after we arrived the line we were in quadrupled itself, filling up the entire parking lot with people. After three hours of waiting for tickets, asking people the entire time wether we could get tickets and getting different answers, it turns out I was wrong. We had to go the next day. This time I went earlier, arriving at the train station 5:15, this time we were able to get into the ticket auditorium, the ticket counter did not open up until 7:30am though. A friend of a friend who came with us went outside for a smoke at some point and was not allowed back in. This was concerning as only one person can buy 2 sleeper class tickets to Beijing, and there was only me and my friend left. So we waited in line anyways, hoping to get four tickets at least. Anyways we arrive at the counter around 8:30am only to be told that the sleeper class tickets are sold out. This is ridiculous considering it was the first day they were available and we were some of the first people in line. I guess the travel agencies and the mob get first dibs on ticket and you have to pay them a load more money to get them. We had to settle for hard seats, but at least we have tickets, and for that I am grateful. Thats all for now! If your not already reading this on facebook, below is a link to one of my my facebook photo albums of China:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=291102&id=700610264&l=b19ab2b35a

Ju-Roe Baozi

Our group leaves tomorrow for a Tibetan city not too far from Xining. We are going so that we can experience the Tibetan culture. Gabe and I may go on to another city after our four days in Xiahe. Our original plan had been to go to Yushu where a horse festival is going on, but there is the pneumonic plague close to that city so we had to change our plans a bit. I am really excited to get out there.
I think I have eaten sweet and sour pork at least once, every day for the past week. I'm not complaining about this, just an observation. Gabe and I moved into Dan's apartment and he has been guiding us around a bit. It's in a different area of town and it's great to get to know another part of the city. Thats all for now, I'll try my best to update again when I get back (many websites like blogspot and facebook are blocked in China, but I find a way to get on every now and then!)

CHINA

Arrived safely in China more than a week ago. Gabe hadn't been feeling well and had the flu for the days before and after we arrived in China, so I took him to the hospital. There we were taken to an abandoned building in the hospital grounds that they use for prisoners when they get ill. It was pretty much what I was expecting, rusty bed, hard mattress, old school medical instruments. We thought it would pretty routine and we would be in and out. We were wrong. They quarantined Gabe and also myself because I was with him. 18 hours later we are released from the hospital. That is a bad way to start out an update, so, for that I apologize.
I actually really like it here, a lot. Xining, located in the Qinghai province is a city of approximately 2 million with heavy influence from the Hui Muslim and the Tibetan people groups. The climate is so mild here which is a really nice change from hot Taiwan. The people are friendly and put up with my lack of Chinese well. It is a fun place to be and there is always something happening, whether it be Tibetan dancing in the mornings and at nights, to Xi Men ( a sqaure where people of all ages gather) where you can hang out and meet new friends, to the open mike night at the coffee shop next Wednesday.
I've been making friends in the coffee shop across from the apartment we are staying in and it has been a real good time. I have also been doing lots of teaching English at a school, and an orphanage, and recently a little bit in the coffee shop.
Next week we start working in a American style restaurant that has recently opened up. We will be in charge of quality control and supervising the staff (even though we are newer than they are!) while the owner is gone for several weeks.