Humility & Authenticity

So, recently we switched around our duties, and I am no longer on the ywam blog. Feel free to continue to read it, but the new author is Jesse (the boy).

So to finish off sharing about our speaker Jack McNeill, I'll tell you about what I learned. He

talked a lot about going into a different country and into a different culture, and how to go about it. He explained that culture can be anything from manners, to how we greet people, to how we

eat a banana. As an example, Jack sat in front of the class with a banana. He began to eat it the opposite way that we would normally eat it. We talked about how we would see that as the 'wrong' way to eat it. But that is just how our culture eats bananas, and other cultures eat them differently. This is just one example of many. He talked about how the church is like a disfunctional family. When someone outside a family attacks someone in a family, the family grows closer. But if people inside the family attack

each other the family grows apart. This relates to our team and how we must be united here. But, it also includes the church communities in general.

At the end of the week, Jack said that everything he talked about boiled down to one main point. Are we willing to be neighbours to people? He ended off with Matthew 27:18-20. Jesus is saying I AM THE KING therefore going (could be praying for people, healing people, etc.) MAKE DISCIPLES baptizing and teaching.

The next week we had a speaker in named Chad Chomlack from Whistler, BC. He was great.

His topic was praise and worship, and what he said really challenged me on what I believe and why, and it pointed out things so plainly to me

that I thought were so complex. He talked about

Matthew 13:24-30 -- The weeds and the wheat.It's about how God does not want us to separate the weeds from the wheat, but to live amongst it and trust God to be in charge. We ask, "Didn't the weeds hurt the wheat?" We will never fully be wheat - we will always have that mixture until full redemption. Chad talked about the separation between christian and secular stuff (dualism) -- but we need to remember that God is in EVERY aspect of life. In the passage in Matthew, the workers ask "Shall we go separate and divide?" He says "No, it is not your job. Be in it, understand how it grows, and trust God to do the harvesting." Life is both/and, not either/or. We separate church and work. Our eyes are seeing through a lense of sacred and secular. Chad said, in a dualistic mind, you've prayed a prayer, accept Jesus and it's all about you and Jesus. Yes, your heart and life with God are important to Him, but your role in the community is a big part. It's both. We need to become more aware of who God is at all times. Chad talked about a lot more during the week, but that's one main point that has really challenged me.

The next week we spent the whole week volunteering at Winnipeg Harvest - a food distribution centre. To get more information on what goes on there, please check out this website:

http://www.winnipegharvest.org/

We spent the week doing lots of different jobs. We

sorted potatoes and onions - separating the edible ones from the not so edible ones. We bagged flour, sugar, rice and macaroni to send out to families. We filled large bags with packages with pasta, canned fruits, some sort of protein, and other things to create family packages. We did pre-sort -- which is taking what grocery stores, other organizations or individuals that sent in food and material things, and sorting

through what is good and what's bad. We also separated them into different areas. So you can imagine we found some pretty nasty things! Here's one thing we found!! Yes,

they are pig ears..... :O

We've also been meeting lots of neat people! We've met some people from Germany, Kenya and

all over Canada, all of whom we've had the privilege of spending time outside of the classroom with and are able to keep in contact with. The Kenyans and Canadians

that we have befriended, are in a program called Canada World Youth. Here's a link if you are interested in checking it out: http://www.canadaworldyouth.org/en/

They spend 3 months in Canada and 3 months in Kenya. It's really a neat program.

So finally I am onto this week!! We just spent the week with a speaker named Randy Pariseau from Vancouver, BC. He and our speaker next week, Tanya Lyons, head up the YWAM base in Vancouver, and we had the privilege of having both of them come and share their wisdom with us. This week Randy's topic was "Conversations on Leaderships". He lead, and we all engaged in many conversations about being a servant-leadership, women in leadership, humility, prayer and many other topics. We watched the movie We Were Soldiers based on the book We Were Soldiers Once... And Young. It was a great movie - I definitely recommend it. But, it highlighted different aspects of good leadership as well as bad. It was challenging and eye-opening. If you

ever get the chance to watch it, I'd say go for it! One note I'll share with you all, is something that has really stood out to me this week and recent weeks. The Abrahamic covenant > We are blessed so that we can bless. THAT is what leadership is all about.

One more thing! So as for my funds for the outreach phase go... I have $950 to go! I want to say a HUGE thank you to all my supporters. I wouldn't be here without you. If you are able to help finance the rest of my journey, please contact me. I thank you so so much. Please continue to pray for me, as God is really working in my life and through this ministry. :]

Thanks for reading! I know this one is a long one because I haven't been on here for so long! I hope I still have readers out there, even thought I'm not very consistent with this. After all this reading, I'll leave a few pictures to show you what else we have been up to! Feel free to leave a comment. Goodbye for now!

MA week.

Hey everyone!

Welcome to my blog, again.. hopefully, I'm going to share about MA week! What is that, you ask? Mission Adventures week. It's a whole week of us living in a church somewhere else in the city, and doing some urban mission stuff. The first day, we went and gave roses to prostitutes on the streetsWe went out with six roses, and we finished the night with none. Each of us had one rose to give away. We would go up to them, with two staying behind to pray, and offer them a rose as a sign of God’s love. I didn't find out the name of the girl I gave mine to, but I remember her by the sparkles around her eyes. She was beautiful. When I talked to her, my view of prostitutes changed immensely. They're just girls like me; a lot are younger or the same age. It was an amazing experience. For us to be able to look back at them and see them cradling that rose and smelling it, was something beautiful..

The next day we spent most of the day at Siloam Mission, a homeless shelter. We spent time in the kitchen preparing meals and filling up plates, as well as on the floor gathering dishes and spending time talking with the people there. There were a few people that stood out to me there. Each one of them just wanted to sit and talk with me. They were so sweet and kind, and I definitely got quite a few compliments from them. It was so awesome to hear their stories and their dreams -- which were big! At the time we were there volunteering, they had an opportunity for the people there to get a flu shot. There were TV crews and cameras all over the place. Some of us made it on the news! You can see us in the background: (I'm wearing purple!)

http://www.cbc.ca/video/news/player.html?clipid=1310442235

That night we went to the youth correctional center and got a tour of the place and did a chapel service. About 30 kids between the ages of 13 and 18 showed up to the service, where we sang some songs and each shared something. I talked about how healthy people don't need a doctor. How Jesus came and spent his time with the tax collectors and the sinners... and how he wants to spend time with all of us regular people. Afterward we were able to spend some time interacting with the youth and got to hear some of their stories.

On Wednesday we had a cultural day. We played a game that day that involved two tribes and one group of missionaries. I was a missionary (which is the hardest role!) Us missionaries had to go into an unreached people and reach them. We had to learn their language and customs and figure out how to communicate with them. It was lots of fun, and we all had to act a little crazy.

On thursday we did the downtown plunge. It was a day of being homeless. We had to go out onto the streets and we had a bunch of tasks. We had an extra lunch that we had to give away. My team found a homeless guy named Richard, and we gave him the lunch. He'd been on the streets for seven years asking for change. Another thing we had to do was panhandle. Yes, ask for money. This was very hard. We had to ask at least 5 people, and the first 4 people I asked just said no or walked away. The last person gave me a toonie! But he aslo wanted to know why I needed the money and he said I needed to get a job. Even after I told him I wasn't really homeless, he didn't listen to me and recommended that I get a job. :/

That day we also had bus tickets and we had to go somewhere on the bus and talk to someone. I met a girl named Emily who is a tattoo artist. I told her what we were doing and she shared about her life. Later that day we planned a halloween costume for Julia and Kerry, two girls from the neighbourhood.

When we got back to the house on Friday, we were all pretty tired and didn't do much that night. BUT.. the next day was Halloween! SO, Kathryn, Jenny and myself dressed up as the Ninja Turltes (Donatello, Michaelangelo, and Raphael (that was me)). We went to a comic con (a big comic convention) and so many people there wanted to take our picture! I felt kind of famous. Also, Adam West was there. Yes, batman. It was just a great time. Here's us getting a picture with a cute little boy!



MA week was really great -- my favorite so far. I have lots of stories from the week, so if you have any questions or if you want to hear them, don't be afraid to ask!

I'll let you know about this week while I'm here. We have a speaker in named John (Jack) McNeil. He's an anthropologist, and he's been speaking on Global Missions and a lot about culture. It's going great, I find him so interesting and I'm learning a lot. This week has been pretty slack besides the lectures. I guess for fun night on monday, Jenny, Kim and I went to the theatre (the cheap theatre) and watched My Sisters Keeper. Just so you know, in case you haven't seen it, it is so sad. I cried during the whole thing. Best fun night ever.. lol.

Umm... but yea, that's all that's been going on with me lately! Be sure to leave a comment. Thanks for reading!

PS -- I miss you all a lot!