merry christmas! it has definitely been a different christmas for me this year. We were able to take the weekend off and go to a hotel on the Red Sea. It has been a nice, warm and beachy christmas....but i do miss the snow. It was hard being away from family but the people here made it so much easier. i know that i am where i am supposed to be.
Last week was a busy week with all of the different ministries each day. We went back to the mother theresa orphanage and i was able to work with the kids with disabilities. im still so amazed by the people who dedicate every day to serve in this way. The next day we went to a Christian boys orphanage. They were from the ages of 10-18 and spoke english very well. it was so nice not to have an interpreter. we played a huge soccer game and it was so much fun. Another day we went to a school where we performed our dramas and led kids in worship songs. Another night we went to a Sudanese refugee home. That was really eye opening and hard for me. Most of them were christians and we went to their house to visit them and give them a message. I gave my testimony on how i became a christian. It was hard for me because i was thinking about the fact that here i am this girl from the western world that has pretty much been in a bubble my whole life and i am supposed to give a message to these people that have been ripped away from their country and family and still believe and love the lord so much. man, i should be getting a message from them! i know that this ministry is going to teach me so much and God is not only going to use me but use them as well.
I know i am all over the place with my writing....i always feel so rushed when i check my email because i only have a limited amount of time. We are all heading back to cairo tomorrow and starting our ministries again on wednesday. It is definitely tiring and exhausting doing ministry every day...but i have realized that i am here. I am here for a reason and i just want to show these people Gods love. The language barrier can be frustrating sometimes because i just wish i could express myself without having an interpreter or feeling like they dont understand what i am saying, but i know that God is teaching me something here. i just need to surrender my comfort in this time. This is where im at and this is where i will be for the next 2 1/2 months.
well, my time is almost up. thanks again for your prayers! have a beautiful day!

greetings from egypt!
i am currently sitting in probably the sketchiest internet cafe in cairo, however, i am safely protected by 3 guys from my team. just thought i would let you know. so,, we finally made it here. We were suppose to have a 4 hour lay over in rome but our flight to cairo ended up getting cancelled because of a strike going on. But, God completely blessed us with a free night in rome at a hotel with amazing food. It was so nice to be able to spend a couple of hours in rome and have a good nights rest. We had a direct flight to cairo in the morning.
We have two apartments that we are staying in that are so much better than i expected. One of the leaders from ywam owns them and ywamers stay in them 4 times a year. I feel like my team will really become more like a family after living with each other, cooking meals together, and doing chores around the house....even using the bathroom when we all get sick on the food. should be exciting.
This morning was our first ministry experience. We were able to go to the mother teresa orphanage where there were disabled kids, babies, and elderly people. I was assigned to the babies and they now pretty much have my whole heart. It was amazing. There were about 4 of us working with 15 babies. We held them, fed them, prayed for them, and sang to them. I could probably go on forever about the precious children and i just want to get back there. Then i was able to pray with an elderly woman for some time. Its hard when i only know a couple of words in arabic...but i am slowly learning.
It is such a different culture here. We are not allowed to go anywhere unless we have a guy with us. Girls can not look at men in the face and we are definitely not supposed to smile. As you all know...that is quite challenging for me. Ive already made that mistake a couple of times...but i am trying....its just hard after smiling for the past 20 years and then all of a sudden turning that off....yaaa.
We found this amazing smoothie place with fresh fruit and you can get a huge smoothie for less than 50 cents. I love the american dollar.
So that is the update at the moment....i am pretty much dying from all of the smoke around me right now so i think i need to get out of here. I will not be able to right in this blog often..but hopefully once in awhile i can update you all. Continue to pray that my team will develop Gods heart for the muslim people. Thank you all for your support and prayers. have a beautiful day!

hello everyone!
this may be the last time in a while that i write in my blog. I dont know how often i will be able to get on the internet once i am in Egypt. I leave on friday at 4 am from this base...our plane leaves at 6 or 7...one of those. This week has gone by so fast and has been full of learning dramas, preparing, packing, and trying to spend as much time as possible with the people we are not going to see for 2 1/2 months. Its hard to believe that the DTS phase of this experience is over. It has been amazing. I am definitely ready to apply everything i have learned here and be a part of a whole new culture.
This morning at 5 am my room was serenaded by people dressed in white outfits, with wreath candle things on their heads, who were handing out cookies. Apparently, it was a Norweigen holiday today...i dont know how to spell that word.....but it was a very different experience that i greatly enjoyed.
I got accepted to the Biblical Core Course today, so i am definitely going to stay for an extra three months.
So, im kind of all over the place right now because there are a million things going on at the moment...but i just wanted to give a quick update. Thank you for your prayers and i will try my best to write updates every couple of weeks! love you all. have a great christmas!

So i have failed at the whole write in the blog once a week thing. I will try my best to summarize the past....hmm...two and a half weeks.
"For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. O Lord, Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you."
This verse has been very encouraging to me as we get ready for outreach. I leave in 10 days! It is crazy to think that i will soon be in Egypt and sad to think that half of the people that have become my family will be in two other countries. The DTS phase has gone by so fast! It hasnt really hit me yet. We have been learning some Arabic as a team and getting things organized before we go. I do not know exactly what we will be doing, but i know for sure we will be working in an orphanage and refugee camp for part of the time. If you could just be praying for the unity of our team. There are 17 of us living in one house, but thankfully we are split into two ministry teams. Its a really good team though. Today we started the "no physical contact practice" because pretty much the only way we can touch the opposite sex in egypt is by placing our hand on their elbow. should be interesting....maybe a little difficult.

Thanksgiving was a good time. We had a celebration here and the americans put on a thanksgiving skit (which included indians, pilgrims, and a turkey) to make sure that the other cultures knew what it was all about. It was hard being away from family, but if i had to do thanksgiving any other way it would have been exactly the way we had it here. This place has really become my home.

Big News in my life: I am staying an extra three months! One of the base leaders here talked to our class about the Biblical Core Course. It is a course where you read through the whole Bible in three months and learn tools to dig deeper. When he started to talk about it more, I was drawn to the idea. The Word of God is supposed to be a foundation in my life and the most important book...yet i havent even read through it all and there is so much i do not know. I want to discover more of what i believe based on the Bible, not based on what i have heard. I know that this is what i am supposed to be doing and it is so exciting that God has made that clear. The school starts on april 4th and goes until june 24th. So, that is pretty much the update in my life at the moment. Its been a crazy journey but probably one of the best decisions i have made in my life so far.

"Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this."
Pray that I will become a woman of faith. I want to fully trust in the Lord. What is the impossibility that God is going to challenge you with? It is us who decides how much of god we want in our life.