From graduation to staffing.....

So I graduated my DTS last week and joined staff the next day!

I knew that I was called to Missions about eight years ago and have prayed and waited and prayed and waited and waited, etc etc and finally felt called to come to YWAM in September 2009 and came to Hawaii to do my DTS. Within 24 hours of arriving in Hawaii, I felt God tell me three times that I was supposed to stay in Kona, join staff and not go home. I wasn't quite sure how it would all work about but I was trusting God. I wasn't sure exactly what I would do either. I knew I was supposed to work with photogenX, but that was all I really knew....talk about faith!

I was asked to work with the Sex+Money. Sex+Money: A National Search for Human Worth is a documentary about domestic minor sex trafficking and the modern-day abolitionist movement fighting to stop it. The documentary is due to be released in April 2011 and the team will begin a 50 state distribution tour to screen it and have panel discussions with policy and law enforcement and other spheres of society, including the church. I will be working with Carmen to help plan the distribution tour. I am also the building manager for the building I am living in, which houses about 90+ students and staff. It is an amazing opportunity for me to disciple the girls in my building. I also have three work duty students that will clean the building and it's surrounding. 


YWAM is celebrating it's 50th year this year and this quarter is the largest in Kona with over 650 students. In December we will have a week long 50th Anniversary Celebration, we expect to have 2,000-3,000 people attending. There's lots of extra preparation to be done for the 50th too. So this quarter will be a busy one! 


Please keep me in your prayers as you think about me. 


I would love to hear from you and how I can pray for you too. 

10 days in Orlando = happiness

I left the base in the Dominican Republic at the crack of dawn. Elizabeth woke up to say goodbye to me, she had also left me a note and some balloons by my bag in case she didn't see me, everyone else was dead asleep! I waited until I was on the plane to read it, it was so encouraging and sweet! I was waiting downstairs when Orlando, the taxi driver (ironic, huh?), showed up 20+ minutes EARLY, yes early, to pick me up. The ride to the airport along the coast watching the sun rise was absolutely amazing. SO many emotions were running through me....I was sad and disappointed to leave my team/family,  was excited to see friends I hadn't seen in 6 months, I was comforted to know I could rest for a few days and try to get well again, I was nervous to go back to the states after all the devastation haven been ruined for ordinary living and so much more!

Amanda picked me up at the airport, I thought she would just pick me up on the curb but she was waiting inside, what a pleasant surprise! FIRST stop just down from the Orlando airport....STARBUCKS! We ran some errands and had lunch at Designer Greens (a salad joint), eating CLEAN food never tasted SO GOOD! Then she dropped me off at my dear friends, Jeremy, Grace and Connor's and visited with us for a while. Connor was born a few weeks before I left for DTS and I was at the birthing center when he was born, so it was awesome to see how much he had grown. Some other friends of ours were out of town and had left their car, so I had use of a car the whole time I was there. I made four airport runs in the process, but it was totally worth it! They left a few days later for a long weekend, so I had the house to myself for a few days and just relaxed!

Unfortunately I wasn't able to see everyone as so many people were busy, but I enjoyed the people I did see. I was able to go to youth group the night I got there and attend church the following week. Jeremy had free tickets to Universal so we went one day. I connected with some friends I met in Haiti at the YWAM Orlando base and joined them for family night, worship and dinner at the base and another night I joined them at some friends house for an amazing dinner and game of Settlers! I wasn't able to make it out to see the new base, but it wasn't because of lack of effort. I also joined my LIFE group one night and stayed at my friends - Brian, Wendy and Garrison (where I stayed the last few weeks before leaving) for a few nights.

I celebrated my birthday the day before I flew back to meet my team! I hung out with Amanda and my friend, Kathi, took me to California Pizza Kitchen for lunch and we had Thai Crunch salad, my favorite and the inspiration for my Spice Thai Salad on my other blog. For dinner my friend, Mariah, took me for all you can eat Sushi, my favorite! It was an AMAZING day!

Back in the DR.......Sickness, Angels and Growth

Going back to the DR had mixed emotions for most of the team! Personally I wasn't very excited about it, many of the team members were not excited about the rules we had previously, but we all had open minds and submitted everything to God. Christian Fox, one of our DTS leaders came the day after we arrived back in the DR and we had a fun day at the beach. It was Christian's birthday so we threw him a little birthday celebration and he brought us candy, which everyone was excited about.

Beautiful Beach!

Christian was a little tired from his travels. :)

Denine is on staff at the base in the DR, she is an incredible woman of God. I really love and respect her.

A boy we befriended on the beach, he was in love with Emily and Elizabeth. 

I continued to be nauseas, which was no fun! :(



Our second day, we went on a tour of downtown. Here are a few pictures....

Elizabeth and Emily bought friendship bracelets!

And this is how people exchange money! :)

We went to a little shop that had amazing fresh juices and coffee.

Color art available on the street.

And there's a KFC that delivers! :)

That night we went to Denine's church.

Sunday we had a day of rest and then went to speak at Laromi's youth group and then visited with her family. Laromi is one of the girls that is part of King's Kids and volunteer's at the base. She was like part of our team. A few of us shared testimonies.

After a few days of rest we began planning our ministry. Unfortunately, I continued to be nauseas and every time I ate, by stomach hurt really bad. Both Emilys continued to be sick and so did Elizabeth. Elizabeth was the first to go to the doctor and came back with the news that she had an amoeba. She had to go back a few days later so the four of us ended up going. We went to a private hospital and that is where we met our Angel. We met Dr. Angel, who was from the Tampa area and spoke fairly good English, in the Emergency Room. We explained our symptoms and he walked us over to the lab and ordered stool samples and blood work and told us to come back in 24 hours for the results. He gave us a prescription, as he was pretty sure we had parasite. He also gave us instructions on what to eat and explained that it was most likely that we got the parasite from dirty water! NICE, huh! We trucked home, ordered our prescription on the phone and had it delivered to the house, yes, delivered to the house or base! The next day we took a taxi back to the Hospital to get our results and found our Angel, who again walked us through everything. The results were negative so he sent us over to see a Gastrointestinal Specialists. He walked us over and checked on us several times while we waited to see her, as she wasn't in yet. OH, I forgot to mention we never paid for an ER visit, just the lab test and the the Gastro. The GI Doctor ordered a series of test, one being multiple stool samples that needed to be grown 48 hours, so back we went home with our sample cups AND back to the hospital the next three days, to drop off stools, get results, etc. The end result, two of us had parasites, one had an amoeba and the fourth undiagnosed. This meant we missed ministry for almost two weeks. We spent TONS of time locked up in the house doing nothing but resting and taking care of each other. We prayed and worshipped together. God met us and I really feel like this was a time of growth for each of us. The last day we went to the hospital Emily Rice was really weak and had to get several bags of IV fluid pumped into her.....which we never had to pay for! Thank you to our Angel!

In the midst of all of this, I was trying to close on my house, which I sold via a 'short sale'. All the paperwork was overnighted to me in the DR. I needed to get about 8 pages notarized, which had to be done at the American Embassy since I was out of the country. So in the midst of being miserably nauseas and sick, I traipsed down to the American Embassy to try to get my papers notarized. Cyrielle, my outreach leader, and Dani, one of my team mates, had a appointments for their Visas so we all went together. Unfortunately I had to come back the next day, I tried to go in with them BUT they had stuff they couldn't take in so I had to stay outside for several hours by myself. FUN....NOT! Remember, I'm not feeling good, it's summer and it's HOT, but I survived! So I came back in two days, only to find out that I stood in line for a while JUST to get an appointment for the following day......UGHHHHH.....REALLY!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, God was challenging me! I also received paperwork indicating that they charge $50 USD for EACH notary! WHAT????? Considering I needed at least 8 pages notarized, that was over $400!!! I soon figured out a one way ticket to Orlando to be at the closing in person was MUCH cheaper. I talked to my outreach leader and called our school leader and got approval to book a flight to Orlando and then meet my team in Miami for our flights back to Kona on September 16. So I booked my flight and packed up and headed back to the mainland for 10 days. It was a really hard decision to leave the team, but considering that I hadn't been well for almost three weeks and the ridiculousness of the notary fees and appointments, it seemed like the best decision. Turned out there was a document that needed to be signed on the day of closing that could have lost the whole deal if it didn't close the day it did, so everything worked out perfectly! 

This also meant spending my birthday with friends! :)