Yes. I am back in California. Hallelujah! Praise the LORD and all that good stuff. Actually I've been home for a little over 3 weeks and didn't even think to write on this thing. Oops. So here's my update for you.
Really, all I can say is... wow. God is SO good. So faithful. So radical. So amazing. I've had the amazing opportunity to experience God in ways I never thought possible over these past 6 months. And what I've come to know and experience is that God is our healer, comforter, solid rock. Our refuge, our strength, and above all, He is our Father who yearns for a personal relationship with us. I never realized how desperately I needed God in my life. Yes, I was always a "Christian". But to be honest, I never really lived like one. Six months ago, I would have classified myself as a lukewarm Christian. (revelation 3:15-16). And I came to the conclusion that under no circumstances did I want to be spit out of God's mouth. With that in mind, I began running, sprinting towards God. And what I thought would be a boring relationship turned out to be the most life-changing one that I will ever have. I don't know how I survived a day without reading His Word. It fills you daily- why not read it? Gosh. I'm so pumped about this.
I am fully aware that it wasn't YWAM that changed me- ALL glory goes to God for that one. But I did learn so much about His character, and how FUN and EXCITING it is to be a follower of Christ. Experiencing God like this made my faith and my desire to be in His will so much stronger. The scariest place I could ever be is outside of God's will for my life. I don't know all the details... but I do know that whatever I'm doing, wherever I am, I will be proclaiming the greatness of God.
"So Hannah, what are you doing with your life now?" seems to be a very popular question for me. Well, let me tell you. For the next month, I will be here. Home. California. After that month I'll be heading back to my favorite land that calls itself Guatemala. Sooooo excited to be reunited with my little friends there, and to see God at work yet again. After that, until God tells me otherwise, I'll be going to COS (local community college).
So at this point, I'm doing just fantastic. It was extremely difficult for me to adjust back to being home at first, because I miss my YWAM family so stinkin much. But it's getting better day by day. Welp, if you have ANY questions, please don't hesitate to ask. I would LOVE to tell you awesome stories and testimonies about how God moved in Europe and Africa, and how He is still at work although I'm here in California. (Yes, this God I experienced in Europe and Africa is the SAME GOD that you and I serve here in the States, and He would LOVE to use you in ways you can't even imagine.) Love you all, and I can't thank you enough for all of your prayers and support while I was gone! You're amazing.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Monday, March 5, 2012
Finally, the Final Month!
Praise the Lord, hallelujah, it's my last month abroad for a while. Yes I'm sad to be leaving all of these wonderful people I have met, but I'm beyond ready to be home for a bit. Honestly, I miss everybody so much that it hurts. Not to mention, this cold weather is killing me, especially after living in Africa for the past couple months.
So these past two weeks were amazing... Immediately after Africa, our DTS met up in Amsterdam at the ywam base there. I was in Amsterdam for a week, and I LOVED it. It was so beautiful and it was good to just be back in civilization... (although I still haven't had a Starbucks- very out of character for me). After one week in amsterdam, I got the opportunity to leave Amsterdam and go to a little village about an hour away called Heerde, where a married couple from my DTS live. It was great to be there- Mary and I stayed with a precious little old lady named Jetty. She was hilarious, and it was good because it felt like I was staying at one of my grandmas' house. We did some street evangelism there, spoke at their church, youth groups, and led some Bible studies. It was really a great time.
Now I'm back in Germany, in a town called Ludenscheid with some of my DTS, and we're on (what ywam calls) a "trumpet tour", where we go around and tell people about our experiences on outreach. This week should be pretty great- we have the opportunity to talk with drug addicts, the youth of the town, kids, and we're even planning on doing a bar ministry. Stoked for that.
Next week, we are having a "Faith Week", where basically our leaders say "ready... set... go!" and we pray and ask God where He wants us to go for a week. So, I could end up somewhere in Germany, Poland, Czech Republic... only God knows. Oh ya, we also don't have any money or food or place to stay... we rely on God for all that good stuff. We'll see if maybe my mad hitchhiking skills will come in handy again :)
So like I said, it's the last month... and honestly I'm struggling. It's so hard to be HERE when my mind and my heart are already back home. Also, so many things about Africa are running through my head, of what I could have done differently, and it's hard to process all of these things by myself. If you would pray for me, that would be glorious. Pray that I would continue to have this fire and passion for Christ, and it wouldn't die out here or when I get home. I want to remain strong until the end. Thanks a million.
So these past two weeks were amazing... Immediately after Africa, our DTS met up in Amsterdam at the ywam base there. I was in Amsterdam for a week, and I LOVED it. It was so beautiful and it was good to just be back in civilization... (although I still haven't had a Starbucks- very out of character for me). After one week in amsterdam, I got the opportunity to leave Amsterdam and go to a little village about an hour away called Heerde, where a married couple from my DTS live. It was great to be there- Mary and I stayed with a precious little old lady named Jetty. She was hilarious, and it was good because it felt like I was staying at one of my grandmas' house. We did some street evangelism there, spoke at their church, youth groups, and led some Bible studies. It was really a great time.
Now I'm back in Germany, in a town called Ludenscheid with some of my DTS, and we're on (what ywam calls) a "trumpet tour", where we go around and tell people about our experiences on outreach. This week should be pretty great- we have the opportunity to talk with drug addicts, the youth of the town, kids, and we're even planning on doing a bar ministry. Stoked for that.
Next week, we are having a "Faith Week", where basically our leaders say "ready... set... go!" and we pray and ask God where He wants us to go for a week. So, I could end up somewhere in Germany, Poland, Czech Republic... only God knows. Oh ya, we also don't have any money or food or place to stay... we rely on God for all that good stuff. We'll see if maybe my mad hitchhiking skills will come in handy again :)
So like I said, it's the last month... and honestly I'm struggling. It's so hard to be HERE when my mind and my heart are already back home. Also, so many things about Africa are running through my head, of what I could have done differently, and it's hard to process all of these things by myself. If you would pray for me, that would be glorious. Pray that I would continue to have this fire and passion for Christ, and it wouldn't die out here or when I get home. I want to remain strong until the end. Thanks a million.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Africa Outreach
I'm back to civilization! Thank you JESUS! These past 9 weeks have been the craziest, hardest, most life changing 9 weeks this 18-year old girl has ever experienced. Regardless of various sicknesses and whatnot, I absolutely don't regret a minute of outreach. I'll try my best to explain with words how my time was- but my words aren't good enough to really tell you how Africa was for me.
So the first 4 weeks of outreach were spent in Yei, South Sudan. It was awesome spending Christmas and New Years there, because it was South Sudan's first ever Christmas and New Years, seeing as they're a brand new country and all. We stayed at the YWAM base, which might sound luxurious, but it was a very African ywam base- meaning we pumped our own water for showers, showered out of a bucket, had a hole in the ground for a toilet, and were greeted by lots of lovely spiders and other various wildlife in our cement rooms. Good stuff.
The main ministries I did in Yei were orphanage ministry in the morning, and village ministry in the afternoons. I absolutely loved the orphanage. Immediately I made friends with a brother and a sister named Daniel (7) and Grace (9). They were seriously the cutest kids I have ever seen! It was great to just go there and love on all of those kids, and watch their faces light up when I showed them a picture I took of them. Village ministry was extremely hot (in the afternoons it was around 110 degrees and humid) but so rad. I would sometimes have to just stop and remind myself that I was walking in a village in Africa, walking between huts and naked children, telling people about the goodness of God- and I might not ever have an opportunity like this again. I also did ministry one Sunday at the prison, where I got to give my brother Jason's testimony of how God radically changed his life. That was definitely a highlight of the whole trip for me.
The last 4 weeks of outreach were spent in Arua, Uganda. There was also a village ministry here, and it was mainly in a Muslim village. That was really cool to experience. We would seriously just walk through the village, and TONS of kids would end up following us, yelling "Mizungu Mizungu!" (white people). It was so cute. But the main thing I did in Arua was work in the kitchen and get to know the people at the base. It was so great to get to know people like Milka, the main cook who was 24, and Rose, her friend who was 22 and had the cutest baby EVER named Gift. They were such a blessing to me. I also learned how to make some awesome African food, (like chapattis!!) AND I learned how to cut onions and tomatoes, a huge accomplishment for me. :)
There are some great stories of how God moved in Africa, and I can't wait to tell you once I get home. Thank you so much for all of your prayers! xoxo- Hannah
So the first 4 weeks of outreach were spent in Yei, South Sudan. It was awesome spending Christmas and New Years there, because it was South Sudan's first ever Christmas and New Years, seeing as they're a brand new country and all. We stayed at the YWAM base, which might sound luxurious, but it was a very African ywam base- meaning we pumped our own water for showers, showered out of a bucket, had a hole in the ground for a toilet, and were greeted by lots of lovely spiders and other various wildlife in our cement rooms. Good stuff.
The main ministries I did in Yei were orphanage ministry in the morning, and village ministry in the afternoons. I absolutely loved the orphanage. Immediately I made friends with a brother and a sister named Daniel (7) and Grace (9). They were seriously the cutest kids I have ever seen! It was great to just go there and love on all of those kids, and watch their faces light up when I showed them a picture I took of them. Village ministry was extremely hot (in the afternoons it was around 110 degrees and humid) but so rad. I would sometimes have to just stop and remind myself that I was walking in a village in Africa, walking between huts and naked children, telling people about the goodness of God- and I might not ever have an opportunity like this again. I also did ministry one Sunday at the prison, where I got to give my brother Jason's testimony of how God radically changed his life. That was definitely a highlight of the whole trip for me.
The last 4 weeks of outreach were spent in Arua, Uganda. There was also a village ministry here, and it was mainly in a Muslim village. That was really cool to experience. We would seriously just walk through the village, and TONS of kids would end up following us, yelling "Mizungu Mizungu!" (white people). It was so cute. But the main thing I did in Arua was work in the kitchen and get to know the people at the base. It was so great to get to know people like Milka, the main cook who was 24, and Rose, her friend who was 22 and had the cutest baby EVER named Gift. They were such a blessing to me. I also learned how to make some awesome African food, (like chapattis!!) AND I learned how to cut onions and tomatoes, a huge accomplishment for me. :)
There are some great stories of how God moved in Africa, and I can't wait to tell you once I get home. Thank you so much for all of your prayers! xoxo- Hannah
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