WEEK 2

It’s the official end of our first week of lectures & boy has it been a week! Each week a new speaker comes to the base to give lectures on a specific topic. This week our guest speaker was Maria Daughtry a brilliant lady who’s been with YWAM for almost 15 years. She’s had an extremely eventful life & has amazing stories to share about God’s grace in her action-packed life. This week lectures were on “Hearing God’s voice”. I guess I wasn’t complete sure what to expect from lectures but this blew any ideas I had out of the water. We were learning & questioning our lives in ways I had never even thought about. The week was learning about our amazing God’s character, about the true meaning of what salvation brings to each believer and the power in following God’s voice (now by voice I don’t necessarily mean audible voice. It could be a verse in the bible, a song, nature, a vision or lots of other things that God speaks to you through). The lectures were also fascinating as Maria prayed for many of the students & was able to really open them up to God’s plan for their life.

This week we also began intercession, which we will be doing twice a week. Intercession is when you stand in the gap between others or country, praying & pleading on their behalf. Now I’d never even heard of this & was a little clueless to how you pray for a country or person you know nothing about. However as we learned the power of praying for others & standing in the gap & taking the arrows being thrown at them I started to realize what an amazing privilege it is that I even have the power to do this. We’ve only had 2 intercession times so still lots to figure out but I am super excited to see how it all unfolds.

We also had a few meetings with our outreach teams to get to know each other & our countries a bit better.

It’s my bunk-mate Amy’s birthday on Sunday so tomorrow (Saturday) a few of us are heading over to the South side of the island to the town of Lahaina to go surfing, shopping & go out for dinner.

"Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you all the desires of your heart" Psalm 37:4

outreach locations revealed

We were given the choice of 3 spots for outreach - We were given less then 24 hours to pray about it & decide where to go without talking to anyone else. My gut reaction was Bangladesh because of its high population of Muslims (85%). After taking an Islamic studies course, in my last year at York U, I have such a heart for the religion & how they live. SO … I am going to BANGLADESH! A team of 10 students & 2 leaders will be taking off the first week of December to pour out to the nation of Bangladesh for 3 months. As of now we are unsure of where we'll be staying or exactly what we'll be called to do, these details will be worked out over the next couple months!
My team consists of:
Jill from Seattle
Amber from Pittsburgh
Ellisiv from Norway
Tara from Vancouver
Christin from Nashville
Grant from Minnesota
Paul from Australia
Chris from Washington (state)
Kyle from Minnesota
Brandon from Florida
Rachel from all over the US
& me!

A FEW DETAILS ON BANGLADESH:

- Declared Independence from Pakistan on March 26, 1971

- Bounded by India from the North. East and West by the Bay of Bengal & Myanmar from the South.

- 7th most densely populated nation in the world (130 million ppl)

- Muslim 85%, Hindu 14%, Buddhist 1%. Christianity is only .4%!

- The national sport of Bangladesh is Kabadi: a 7-a-side team sport
played without a ball or any other equipment. Taking turns, a player must try and tag a player from the opposing team, without taking a breath.

- Bangladesh remains among the poorest nations in the world with nearly half of the population living on less than 1 USD a day- Cox's Bazar, in the south, has a beach that stretches uninterrupted over 120 kilometres, making it the longest unbroken beach in the world.

-Rickshaws in Bangladesh cover 29,000,000 million km a day (twice the distance covered by the London Underground).

- The official language is Bangla, also known as Bengali

- The left hand is considered unclean so only EAT (yup eating with my hands), pass dishes or drink with the right hand

- Currency is the Taka.

- Bangladesh is a parliamentary democracy with Islam as the state religion.

Schedule

Here's my schedule for my 3 months in Maui:
Monday
7am – breakfast
7:45am – leave for worship
8am – worship
9:30am – chapel talks
10am – lecture
12:30pm – lunch
1:30pm – work duties (hospitality)
5pm – dinner
6pm – house meeting/cleaning
7pm – lecture
9pm – Base quite time
Tuesday
7am – breakfast
8am – missions moments
9am – quiet time
10am – lecture
12:30pm – lunch
1:30pm – community outreach
5pm – dinner
6pm – DTS intercession
7pm – growth group
9pm – Base quite time
Wednesday
7am – breakfast
8am – apologetics/basic Christianity
9am – quiet time
10am – lecture
12:30pm – lunch
1:30pm – outreach prep
5pm – dinner
9pm – Base quite time
Thursday
7am – breakfast
8am – base intercession
9am – quiet time
10am – growth group
12:30pm – lunch
1:30pm – work duties
5pm – dinner
7pm – lecture
9pm – Base quite time
Friday
7am – breakfast
8am – base worship
9:30am – chapel talks
10am – lecture
12pm – processing
12:30pm – lunch
5pm – dinner
9pm – Base quite time

Exodus duh … duh … duh

Saturday night was the official kick off of the Discipleship Training School (DTS) & of the School of Biblical Foundations for Missions (SBFM). We got dressed up & headed into a church in the town of Haiku for a reception. It was a great way to meet everyone & to see who was staffing what & what everyone’s roles are. In the DTS there are 28 students – 11 boys & 18 girls. We have 8 staff 4 boys, 4 girls. Near the end of the reception all the DTS students were handed a piece of paper that said to pack 1 pair of long pants, one pair of short pants, 1 shirt, 1 sweatshirt, 1 pair of runners, 1 pair of sandals, 3 pairs of underwear, 1 pair of socks, bathing suit, camera, sunscreen & sleeping bag (& this included what you were wearing).
We were told to be ready by 6:30am. At 6:30 we were up and eating a pancake breakfast – YUM! We then all pilled into the vans, driven to a park, split into teams & given a team egg. Each team had to create a name & cheer – TEAM OSCAR. Then we discovered what we were up to … a MAUI wide scavenger hunt where we had to hitchhike every where as a team! The rules were to take pictures of everything on the list with the team egg & be at IAO valley ball 12:30. Our team booked it around the island doing crazy things like handstands in church ground, putting Mumu’s on in Wal-Mart, building sandcastles & that’s just a few. Our team lucked out & hitched rides with awesome people who waited for us & actually drove us to multiple locations. We arrived 1 hour before deadline & won the race!
In IAO valley we had our packed PJ sandwich lunch & did an hour of quite time. From the valley we piled into the cars & waited to see where we were taken. We stopped at a horse ranch where we walked down to a “campsite” on a cliff by the ocean. We all proceeded to make a campsite some people got fired wood, some set up the tarps for sleeping & others made our bathroom (eww!). We quickly discovered that we were not sure how long we were going to be stuck on exodus, that we were only eating oatmeal & Chinese noodles the entire time & we could not swim in the ocean b/c the waves were too big. Thankfully our exodus was only 2 nights, 3 days but let me tell you it was hard. We played icebreaker games & one of the afternoons walked to an amazing rock garden where we could swim. It was also great b/c we were able to hear everyone’s testimonies which was such a blessing. However a lot of the time was sitting around hungry! Plus there were HUGE centipedes that came out a night - so gross! The last afternoon the leaders got us all to play duck, duck, goose but with pouring mud instead of patting the head, this just ended in a huge mud fight. We were all convinced that we were leaving after this but the leaders were trying to trick us into believing we were changing camp sites. They went as far as to go to another beach have us all pile out with our bags then say there was a mix up & we have to go to a local church for dinner & to figure out where we will stay the night. At this point we were filthy, exhausted & so hungry (see pics). We were not impressed. When we arrived at the church, upset, we entered & all the staff was there with a huge feast for us. It was amazing!
Over all we learned tons about each other & tons about how great we have it on base. But I don’t want to do it anytime soon! See all the pics here -- http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2364620&l=47a60&id=48904047 Plus more pics are posted here -- http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2362955&l=cf654&id=48904047

phone number & mailing address

Mailing Address: Paia: PO Box 790237, Paia, HI 96779
UPS & FedEx ONLY: 1920 Haiku Rd. Haiku, HI 96708

house number: 808-575-9463
Office: 808-575-9460
Fax: 808-575-9476

Arrived!

All my flights were good. I had a an extra 2 hours in San Fran but while i was waiting I actually met a girl who was coming to YWAM also. We were picked up at the airport by a few staff memebers & then drove back along the gorgeous ocean to the base.

The base is great, super relaxed, a little messy and filled with awesome people for ALL over the world. The room I sleep in is a bit crazy because it's 18 girls in the one room with bunk beds that are three beds high. I luckily am on the bottom of a bunk! My bed is beside a girl from Winnipeg and her name is actually Amy! The school officially starts tomorrow evening so Thurs & Fri people were arriving & settling in. Since I arrived Thursday & I was able to unpack right away I had all of Friday free.

There was a group worship service at 8 am & then a few girls & I went to the beach. The beach is about a 10min drive from the base. There are a few beaches (obviously!) today we went to Baby Beach which is just outside of the town of Paia. & you will never guess who we saw there …. Chris Noth (Mr. Big from sex and the city) so random. He was there with his fam & just strolling around. Also a few people from the base ran in to Owen Wilson in Paia a couple days ago. Apparently Im living in a secret celeb getaway spot. The area im in is quite secluded & not very touristy. There was only about 10-15 people on the beach. But so beautiful, it’s exactly as you picture Hawaii. Also to get back from the beach to the base we had to either take a bus or hitchhike & so of course we did as the Hawaiians & hitchhiked! Such a cool thing to do; just sitting in the back of a pickup driving beside the blue ocean.

Saturday we all woke up super early (6am) and went out and played a game of volleyball. Then a few girls went in to the beach again. Tonight is the official opening night. We will be going into the Haiku church for the opening night party. It's exciting that we will be able to meet & see everyone involved with the DTS. Images don't want to seem to load on here so you can check out pictures at this link - http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2362955&l=cf654&id=48904047

Taking off!

For those of you who aren't exactly sure what I'm running off to Hawaii to do here's a short rundown of what I've signed up for (& it's not just a beach party). OR if you'd rather see it visualy you can check out the youTube video -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIcPfueUCxQ

I am doing Youth With A Mission’s Discipleship Training School in Maui, Hawaii(http://www.ywammaui.com/) My program begins Sept. 13 & runs until Feb. 27, 2009. I will be spending 3 months on the north shore of Maui in a small town called Haiku & will spend another 3 months in another nation which will probably be South East Asia.

The first three months are called “lecture phase” in which staff and visiting speakers teach on evangelism, world missions, spiritual warfare, Bible study, prayer, worship, Biblical counselling, relationships, and Christian identity and perspectives. I will attend lecture seminars, and be involved in studies, small groups, local outreaches, community service projects, sports and recreational activities, share in work responsibilities and receive personal discipleship and counselling.

The second part of the program is a field assignment known as “outreach” where I will travel with a small team overseas. I will be putting into practice what I have learned, doing hands-on missions work which may include street evangelism, “open air” crusades, counselling, music, performing arts, children’ ministries, first aid/medical assistance, teaching, construction, and church/community service projects. Outreach destinations are not finalized until after the school is in progress.

If you can spare 3min I highly encourage you to check out YWAM Maui’s promo video on youTube -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIcPfueUCxQ
It’s an amazing video that shows the heart of YWAM Maui and shows you what is expected of me while I am away.

Thanks so much for all the amazing support & encouragement as I was getting ready to leave.
I will be sure to post pics & info as soon as i arrive & get internet.

Ash