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!