Summer Update

Happy weekend encouragers! I had the chance to spend some time talking with J this morning and catching up on the things going on in her life lately.  As you all have read in her past couple updates, she’s been up to a lot with her team.  The walk through the city went really well, and J and her team were able to meet and talk to several different people.  She was pretty excited about how the time went and is thankful for you all lifting her and her team up at the time she asked you to.  Our Father heard you and worked through the team as they walked through the city.

J talked a little about the volunteers that have been helping her and the team she is with throughout the summer.  She said they were, for the most part, very helpful in coming alongside J’s group and working in the areas they were needed.  Now that the summer is ending, it sounds like J will be getting back into her normal routine with the Center, that is, after Ramadan has ended.  Because of Ramadan this month, J won’t be teaching classes at the Center.  However, this is not a necessarily a negative thing!  As you read in her last blog post, this time of Ramadan in the city means there are many, many opportunities for J to get to talk with people in the city that she has gotten to know, as well as people she comes into contact with during the month.  She is really looking forward to what the month has to bring as far as opportunities to share with the people she meets.  And, now that she has her own car to drive (and not just a moped!), J will have more mobility which means more opportunities to get to know people and build relationships, and ultimately have chances to share with them.

As hard as it is to believe, J is coming up on her first year of being in her city very soon!  She finds it hard to believe she has only been there for a year because so many things that happened and she’s settled in, but at the same time she says she can’t believe it has been a whole year.  There are still so many things she is learning and she says she is still finding her place there.  Please be lifting her up in that area—that J will find where she needs to be in her city and feel confident and sure she is where she should be and doing what she is supposed to be doing.  Also, even though she has been in her city for a year, that doesn’t mean she doesn’t need as much encouragement now as she needed in the beginning when this was a new adventure for her.  Please be continuing to encourage her; in fact, try to encourage her now more than before, whether that be in the form of letters or messages or just lifting her up. She covets your encouragement!

PLEASE READ

This Friday at 9 our team, with some nationals, and our volunteers are gathering together to P-walk around our city. This is mainly in preparation for Ramadan. This is a time of fasting for those of Islamic faith. They spend about a month fasting from sunrise to sunset. During this time usually there is a great move of our Father due mainly to the fact that we humans are so week and we can find our strength through Him. So we are going to key points of the city, we will be praying verses and just pouring out our hearts for this city. We are also praying for a time to be able to share with those around us. Some of the team will be fasting preparing our hearts for the battle that is ahead. (The devil doesn’t like us messing with him).  This is where you come in we are urging our fellow believers around the world to unite in this and pray if you feel led on Thursday night (eastern time) at 10 pm if you could just start praying for two hours I know this is late but God is not placed in a time box. Please lift up this city, the people in it, pray for bonds to be broken, hearts to awaken, eyes to see, and ears to hear. Pray for dreams, visions and awakening. Finally pray that the veil will be lifted! Don’t forget 10 pm Thursday. Thank you!

Long time no see

Hey everyone sorry it has been so long since my last blog but between business of life and sickness there hasn’t been too much time.

Life here has been a great adventure for the past two months to just highlight a few things we have had a lot of volunteers, I went to my FAMS meeting, and our whole team has been sick bleh.

The volunteers have been great they have done a great job building relationships and taking care of things when we had our meeting. Sadly the summer is the only time we really have volunteers ( I hope we don’t get too spoiled).  We have had 22 two weeks volunteers through the time and 7 two months volunteers. This has been great! Lift them up as they are starting to travel back this week. Also pray that they will have perseverance for those who will be staying until the end of the month to continue the work.

FAMS (Families Abroad Made Stronger) was amazing this was a time of renewal and encouragement. I came back with a renewed vision for the city and the lost given to me by God. I also got some encouragement that was sort of lacking in my life. This came at the right time and I am thankful that there are people who are so willing to help make this happen but mostly to God who provides it for us each year.

FINALLY J our team has dealt with a lot of illness. This includes the volunteers. We have all had this cold but worst of all is the stomach bug. The violent little thing spread its way through the families, even the poor little babies, and us. Thankfully all that is left is the cold. Pray for healing and rejuvenation!

I will also put a post up about a great opportunity that we have this week to unite together around the world!

Updates from the Rainy City

Hi everyone! A quick update on J from her very rainy city! As they are heading into the “dry” season, J says that it is raining almost every day.  J has been pretty busy with teaching her class at the English Center, but she has a good update to give everyone!  Her first class has now ended, and she is beginning to teach Public Speaking to the students who come.  She seems pretty excited about the opportunity to teach the class.  As a bonus, this past month was the first full month that she hasn’t been sick at all and had to miss days at work, so that is very encouraging.  She thinks she is pretty much past the getting sick stage and has acclimated to the area and living in her city finally.  All in all, J says she thinks she has found her place there; she is at the point where she’s really comfortable and familiar with the city and her job there.  Because of that, she has been able to continue to have really great opportunities to talk with the people she has become friends with in the city and has had some very exciting conversations with some of them. She is really enjoying the friendships she is building with the people there.

J says that the team working at the English Center is all finally together now, and she has really been encouraged by how well they are working together and getting along at the center.  She’s really happy with the group of people she works with and how smoothly they have been able to work together now that they are all there and back from various vacations and trips away from the city.

Aside from working at the English Center these past few weeks, J was able to go to her friend’s college graduation, which she really enjoyed.  Her language classes are going very well, and J says her teacher told her J is doing very well and improving a lot. Her teacher is really proud of the progress J has made in learning the language.  J also said she had a great Easter, but also an eventful one! On her way to a Good Friday service nearby in the city, she was almost hit by a car! Thankfully, she is completely fine, but she said it was a near miss!

J also said this summer, different groups will be coming to the English Center to volunteer, starting in May.  While she said it will be very chaotic getting the volunteers acclimated and shown what needs to be done, she and the people she’s working with are really looking forward to the groups coming because there will be more people to teach English to the students who come.  It will hopefully give J’s team a chance to breathe and make their job a lot less tiring for the time the volunteers are there.  More to come on that from J soon, though, so keep her and her co-workers in your thoughts!

Quick Updates...

Hello everyone! Just a quick update from J for this week. She has been really busy with teaching at the Center the past couple of weeks, and just spending time with the people she works with and the people who come to the Center. She also was sick a couple weeks ago but is thankfully over that now and back into the swing of things. The special class she was planning to start teaching on relationships for women is supposed to start this week. However, J has not had anyone sign up for the class yet, so there is a possibility that she will not teach it right now. She said she might try again in the future to see if there is any more interest in it.




Aside from teaching at the English Center, J’s roommate is back for good and her second roommate has gone back home for good, so things are settling back down to normal. Also, J is really enjoying her new pet bunny, Pancake, who she has nicknamed Flapjack. He is very cute and she likes having him, but she says he is prone to doing flips in his cage sometimes. She thinks he might have broken his ear as a result of the flipping because one of his ears is lopsided and will not stand up like the other one; however, he doesn’t seem to be in pain so she isn’t sure if it’s just a genetic thing!




Remember to keep J in your thoughts as she gets close to halfway through her first year in her city. She also really enjoys being able to Skype with you all, so keep up the encouragement and communication! Lastly, be looking for a newsletter update from J in the next few weeks as she plans to send it out through her support team soon.

Vacation, New Pets, and New Classes

Here’s another update on J and what she is up to in her city-it has been a while! J has been super busy with teaching and taking trips with her roommates, but she wanted to catch all of you up on the things that have been going on in her life lately, both hilarious and serious. She has had a couple of pretty crazy things happen in the last few weeks!



First off, J and one of her roommates were able to go on a short trip to some islands in South East Asia a couple of weeks ago just to get away from work and so her roommate could do some sight-seeing before she goes back home for good. While they were on the islands, the two stayed with a family there and do things such as snorkeling, surfing, and visiting a nearby village. J said she really enjoyed surfing—and she was able to get up on the board and stay up to actually ride
some waves. Since there are coral reefs around the islands they were visiting, the girls were able to do some snorkeling. J said seeing the coral reef was fantastic and they were able to see some really beautiful things while they were snorkeling. Aside from surfing and snorkeling, J said they went to visit a nearby village. It was her first time visiting a village since she has been in her city, and J said it was a neat experience. She is also getting much better at bargaining in the markets as well, as she found out during their visit. When she first arrived in her new city, J said the markets and bargaining was completely overwhelming for her and she had a couple of bad experiences. However, this time, she had a great time and thinks she has figured out how to bargain and be able to buy the things she wants without getting taken advantage of—she bargained and was able to buy something for the equivalent of $3.00 when the original price was
the equivalent of $48.00. Needless to say, she was pretty proud of herself—and she should be-that is an accomplishment no matter where you are!



While on her trip to the islands, J and the people with her rode in a bemo for the first time, which is some type of vehicle but really bumpy. She asked to ride up front since she gets carsick easily, and as a result was able to have a really great conversation with their driver during the hour ride. While she said the conversation was great and very serious, and she was able to share a lot with the driver, J said the ride ended with the driver proposing marriage to her! No holding your breath necessary—she said no!



While the snorkeling and surfing and visiting the village were great experiences for J, she said the part of the trip that was most memorable took place at the house they were staying in. The family J and her roommate were staying with owned a pet rabbit, which went missing a couple of days after the girls arrived. One day, the room they were staying in started to smell very bad, but the girls brushed it off because they were not sure what the smell was. Of course the smell only got worse as the days went on. After a few days, the smell became so bad that the husband came to them and asked them to search their room. J said he told them the room “smells reallybad and the rabbit has been missing for three days.” At the point, neither of the girls wanted to go in their room and look for a dead rabbit. After some searching through their suitcases, J’s roommate went to look under the mattress they had been sleeping on. J didn’t think they needed to look under the mattress because themattress was sitting on the floor and there would have been no room for anything to crawl under it. However, her roommate picked up the mattress anyway and sure enough, underneath was the couple’s pet rabbit—very flat pet rabbit. Of course, a lot of screaming ensued! They think it must have crawled under the mattress a few days before when one of the couple’s daughters had lifted it up to change the sheets and blankets on the
mattress.



J said it was terrible to find the couple’s dead rabbit at the time, but the story is really funny now. In fact, she and her roommate decided to buy a new pet—a rabbit—once they got back from their trip in honor of what happened while they were staying with the family on the islands. In honor of the poor rabbit under their mattress, they named their new pet rabbit Sarabi, which in English means “pancake!”



On a more serious note, J started teaching a new English class last week and she says it is going well; she is getting a lot more comfortable in her teaching role. Also, in April J will start teaching a class just for women and girls that will be similar to a True Love Waits class. She is going to open up the class for any women in the city who want to come, whether they come to the English center, work at the English center, or do not come at all. She is really excited about the class and getting to talk and lead discussions with the women who come to the class. If the class goes well, she plans on leading a class similar to this every other month or so, so be keeping her and the women who come to the class in your thoughts.



Be sure to look at J’s pictures from her trip when she puts them up and send her an encouraging note if you think about it. Have a good week!

Updates...

To all of you who are keeping J in your thoughts—continue to encourage her! She is really excited as the past few weeks she has been able to have several good, deep conversations with people she is meeting in the city and at the English Center. Now that she has been in her city for a few months, she has had the chance to grow relationships with these people and they are opening up and listening to what she has to say in a big way! J has continued to have several opportunities to share, and as she gets closer to people, she continues to have more opportunities.



On a less serious, less important note, J wanted to let you all know that she finally got her motorcycle license! She has had a bike for a while, but has not been able to ride it without a license. Now that she has the license, however, she hasn’t gone out riding on her motorcycle on the roads—she’s still a little nervous to venture out. I am sure that will change soon and she will
be whizzing around the city on her motorcycle!



J went to her first wedding in her new city, and she also went to her first traditional dancing show where locals perform traditional dances—J said it was really different and neat because they wear masks while dancing. She said she really enjoyed it and is planning to go again the next time. She also said she took a lot of pictures, so be sure to look at those when she posts them online!



J is going travelling around the country in a few weeks as well for vacation with the family next door and her new roommate while she is still there. They are planning on going snorkeling, scuba diving possibly, hiking, taking pictures, and sightseeing.



J’s pet Gus Gus died this past week; she thinks it was because there was a drastic weather change where it went from hot to cold quickly within the span of two days. She also suspects that he was might have been getting old—he was about a year old, which is old for those types of animals in domestic situations.




The Center has a lot of new people coming in, so J has been meeting a lot of new girls that she’s been able to get to know and start relationships with. They spend a lot of time with the people who come to the Center outside of class time, so there are plenty of opportunities for J to share with these new girls she is meeting!



That’s all for now—look for another update on what J has
been doing soon!