India: An Unexpected Journey part 1.

It's incredible (as well as terrifying) what all can happen in 24 hours. One minute you'll be living your life, and then all of a sudden, without your permission your life will change......the last 4 weeks of my life have been a whirlwind, filled with the Holy Spirit, life changing decisions as well as heartache, so let me start from the beginning of the story-then it'll all make sense.

Saturday, October 19th 2013

My team had split up evenly into two groups of four. I had stayed in Delhi those two weeks working at a school for street kids and orphans, they would come to the school Mon-Fri, 8am-3pm and we would feed and bathe them, teach them English and act out Bible skits, I was loving it! but it was exhausting. Saturday was our free day and it was sorely needed. It was just a regular day, we slept in til' 10:00am, walked over to the school and made ourselves breakfast, Around noon we were chatting about what we wanted to do that day, how could I know what was happening to my family on the other side of the World at that same time? but I'm jumping ahead of myself.

We went out and ran errands all day and met back up at the school at dark for dinner, my leader had her phone out and read a text she had just received...."Blue needs to call home immediately, there's a family emergency." my knees locked, and the first thing I thought was "My dad....something happened to my dad...he's dead. Car accident, I know it." I started to panic, I HAD to call home, I grabbed the phone from her and dialed home....it wouldn't go through! I hung up and tried again, the same. I shouted in frustration. One of my team mates suggested that I try to skype call, great idea! but the only problem was I didn't have any wifi at the school, we would have to go back to our rooms we were renting which was a 10 minute walk through town, at night. I paced back and forth in a daze while my team got organized and at last my leader grabbed my hand and led me down the 3 flights of stairs onto the street.

 She practically dragged me all the way to our rooms, it was all I could do to keep my legs moving and my eyes clear of tears.....the longer we walked the faster my mind ran through everything that could be wrong..."Janelle has been missing a couple days and no one can find her"........."Dad is in the hospital and paralyzed".....suddenly I snapped back into reality and started speed walking, I almost didn't stop for the oncoming traffic I was so determined to get to the room. We arrived at our building and I ran up the four flights of stairs and found all the lights off on our floor, That wasn't odd, it was always like that when we came back at night, but what WAS odd was that the light switch wasn't working, and we couldn't unlock our door because we couldn't see...I was banging on the door in frustration. It seemed like an eternity before my team mate unlocked the door and I charged in, practically falling to the floor. She tried the lights but they wouldn't turn on, just like the tiny window air conditioner this single room had. She left me in the room to go and try and fix the lights somehow but I hardly noticed, I had my Skype already open, having to stand on the bed holding my Kindle up to the ceiling to try and find the sketchy wifi that was in the building next door. It wasn't loading so I jumped on Facebook and the very first thing I saw was my Dads status reading "My dad had a major heart attack this evening. Don't expect him to make it through the night."  I gasped and covered my face with both hands right as the lights flickered on, and that's how my team found me, I couldn't hold the tears anymore, they came.

I still had little knowledge of what was actually going on, but I cried regardless.....I couldn't tell you now if it was out of sadness or relief, maybe a mix of both? My dad was alive, Janelle was fine, but my PawPaw....he wasn't fine.

I needed to speak with my dad, so I tried Skype again and miracle of miracles-it worked. He answered and I started shooting questions right away....but the connection was terrible so he was skipping and I couldn't understand what he was saying until I heard...."I've been......maybe you want to.....funeral." I was so confused until it dawned on me...my PawPaw was dead......I cut my dad off by saying "So...he's gone then?" my dad took a moment to look at me before saying..."yeah, he's gone. around 3:00 this morning." I swallowed the rest of my tears and started talking logistics with him. "I don't know if you want to come home for the funeral or not, I'll need to know soon if you are." "Can I let you know by tomorrow? I need to pray about it." "No, I need to know today-I have a meeting with the funeral home to schedule everything, I can give you a few hours." "Okay dad, I'll let you know in 2 hours. I love you." "I love you too" and then he froze and disappeared .....I was disconnected from my family again.

I stared at my screen blankly for a minute, I had to make a decision for myself....what?! I retold my team mates that were in the room about the situation and that I had to decide if I was going home....they looked as shocked as I was when I found out. They prayed for me and we thought through the pros and cons of both staying or going until finally my brain couldn't handle anymore talking....I went to hide in my room and I locked the door behind me, I pressed my forehead to the door and leaned into it with my eyes locked on the floor..."God" I said out loud "What do you want me to do? Just tell me. I'll stay if you tell me, I need more then just a whisper this time though, not just your 'still small voice' I need something a bit bigger this time. Tell me what you want." I stayed leaning against the door not saying anything with my eyes closed for over 5 minutes, waiting for an answer. I tried keeping my mind open to every option, but I couldn't stop thinking about my family. Finally my mind was too overwhelmed and I had to sit down, I grabbed my leather bound journal and started writing down my situation-I wrote down the brief version, telling myself I would go back later to fill in the details....writing helps me sort out everything and organise my thoughts.

'If I go home I can't come back to India, I love it here so that would suck. I won't be able to graduate with my team and may never see any of them again....or I can stay here and finish outreach, go on the trek in the Himalayas, I'd miss the funeral and never see my PawPaws face again...and not be with my family to support them.....This is the most difficult decision I've ever had to make on my own. Thankfully I have my God to help me.'

At this point it was 9:00 pm and I only had 30 minutes until I had to call my Dad back with an answer. I sat down on my bed and stared out the window, My reflection was looking back at me. I was going to do an experiment, I looked at myself and said aloud "I'm going to stay" and this overwhelming sadness filled me, I noted that and said "I'm going home" and I saw a smile cross over my face and I let out a breath that I hadn't realized I was holding in. 

And added to my journal again. 

'I want to bring God glory in my final decision, but it occurred to me, He's not going to have less glory depending on what I choose, I don't think it's about where you are or what you're doing so much that brings God glory, it's more about how you deal with things. If I stayed in India and praised God or if I flew home and praised God-He would be honored both ways. I don't believe living in God's will is like walking on a tightrope, perhaps God wants us to make the choice. This is my thought, just like we have the free will to love Him and that's what makes it true love, so is it different with other decisions? If He just told us everything how would that bring Him more glory? Sometimes, being in God's will  means that He wants us to be happy and enjoy our decisions-not always, but we CAN make decisions and still be in His will. I have a lot of peace about going home.' 

It was time. I had made my decision....now I had to tell everyone. I unlocked my door and stepped out into the dark hallway, I hesitated before opening the door to my leaders room. Was I positive? Yes, I was. I opened the door and took one step in, everyone looked at me at the same time...all I could say was "I'm going home" and that set everyone off. People were talking to me, asking if I was sure and to think of everything I was going to miss. But I had to go-for my family. I called my family and my older sister answered, she started trying to book me a flight as soon as possible, we were battling against the spotty internet and almost no communication with my leaders in Idaho and my family. It was past 10:00 pm and we stayed up waiting to hear if I had a flight until almost 1:00 am. 

The other half of our team was coming to meet us the next day and I had my flight booked for that night, my time in India was coming to a close, and fast.  

   

To be continued. 

Hell Is A Place, And Lust Is The Taste.

HELL IS A PLACE, AND LUST IS THE TASTE. 

"Outstretched hands line the streets 

Dirty clothes and little feet.

Shouting heard from every corner

A baby dies and no one mourns her.

With flies in her eyes she lies still

escaping the fate that was not her will.

Never was her body ever regarded 

It made it so easy to be discarded." 

-Jennifer reece

I've been in Jaipur, India for 7 days now. Everyday I see something, or experience something new and different. Some good, some painful. I wish I had never seen most of it-because  now there is no room in my life for ignorance, like there was before. I can't UN-see. 

This afternoon my whole team went to the mall in town for lunch, of course I chose Subway for my main dish, and for dessert I crossed the cafeteria floor and ordered a McDonald's Oreo Blizzard, which I thoroughly enjoyed. 

Eating lunch was half of the adventure in going out, the other half was trying to negotiate prices with the rickshaw drivers for driving us back  to our house, that part I opted to sit out of the arguing back and forth between a hoard of men.....but I had my own challenge to face, literally. 

I had taken a step back from the excitement, happily watching and listening-not getting involved, when I heard a voice behind me and felt a light tap on my right shoulder, I turned around quickly, expecting one of my team mates with a sarcastic comment or observation they wanted to point out, but I was caught off guard and instinctively took a step back from the nightmare standing 2 feet away from me. 

I couldn't take in the situation all at once, I let my eyes roam over the lady. She stood a few inches shorter then me, she was wrapped up in a dirty sari, no shoes on her feet, I took a guess that she was in her mid 30's. I noticed that she was holding out her hand to me and saying something, of course I hardly speak 5 words in Hindi, and she wasn't using any of them I knew, so I shook my head told her "Sorry, I don't speak any Hindi." She gave me a blank  stare and continued holding out her hand, repeating whatever  it was she said.

I didn't know what else to do, so I meant to walk away and go stand with my group (who were still arguing prices) but before I turned my back I glanced at the baby she had on her hip, it had been there the whole time but for some reason I hadn't paid it any of my attention, but I did now. 

Once my eyes were focused on it, my ears clogged up, I couldn't hear the honking horns from the street only a few yards from where I was, I couldn't hear the constant dogs barking or even the woman holding the kid, I saw her lips moving but no sounds registered for me. The only thing going through my head then was "Oh my gosh.....this isn't real. God tell me this isn't real!"  My heart sped up, my tongue went numb and my feet were frozen where they were.   

What  I saw I had only seen  a few times on television, and it made the McDonalds Blizzard turn sour in my stomach. This baby couldn't have been older then 2 months, yet it didn't really look like a baby at all, it's head was huge in comparison with it's body. It had its eyes closed but it's head was bobbing slightly up and down as if it couldn't keep its head up any longer. Its cheeks were hollow, and its toes looked like they had been broken and grown back twisted and gnarled, even though they weren't very large to begin with. Then I noticed something else, that it had a grip of its mothers clothes in its fist, but it wasn't that....what was it? I looked closer and saw its hands, I could see every bone poking through the skin, and that's when the fullest revelation hit me and I had to look at the baby all at one time....not just in parts, and what I saw is burned into my memory, I was haunted by it the entire day and will be for months....perhaps the rest of my life.

 I saw death. I saw a tiny skeleton. I saw everything that I hate about India, as well as everything that I want to change about India. This baby didn't choose this life, this cruel existence. Thinking through these things makes me sick, and angry.

As I climbed into the rickshaw (we finally agreed on) I was in shock, my mind was still on the Woman with the skeleton baby....I looked back over my shoulder but they were gone. The ride home was bumpy and jerky, but I was glad for that....that way no one would notice my crying. I felt dead inside, my eyes glazed over and filled with tears. I stared straight ahead the whole way home.

The second we pulled up to our house I bolted up the stairs to my room, I wanted to hide. I had to get away from India. I had to forget that baby.....but the more I tried to erase the images, the deeper they burned. "Forget. forget. forget." I thought over and over while I rocked back and forth on my bed with my head in my hands. It was just making it worse so I gave in, I sat and stared at the floor with dead eyes for 10 minutes thinking to myself "what did I just see?! why didn't I do anything!?!" 

I wish I could tell you that I now have a deep burning passion to save India from all the evil stuff, but I really don't.
But let me ask you a question, is it too much to ask for that babies don't turn into living skeletons? and is there maybe something we can do about it? 

The Difference A Perspective Makes

There is something special that we do when we go out on Trail weeks, we do a solo night. One night during the trip we all pack up our gear and hike out of our established campsite in different directions, it's a time for us to be completely alone with God and to be quiet and listen for His voice.
During our kayaking week I learned a lot about the presents of God, so I was extremely excited about my solo night. I prayed often that God would show me something miraculous, to let me experience something life changing!
The afternoon we split up I hiked the furthest away that I was able to, I wanted no distractions, I wanted to make myself available to have a supernatural encounter with God. I set up my sleeping area and began my evening.

As you can see, I have no tent.

I started out by pushing my sleeping effects aside so I was just sitting on the tarp and I began to pray, I humbled myself like I thought would be the best way to, I was praying expectantly for a supernatural experience that night, and every time I opened my eyes I was disappointed that I didn't see Jesus sitting in front of me on the tarp, or even a Angel. So I would close my eyes tighter and believe harder, I thought my faith wasn't strong enough and that process lasted for an hour, until I got so frustrated with myself that I just gave up, I wasn't  feeling God's presents, I wasn't hearing His voice....I was alone out in the middle of nowhere acting like a fool, so I went to sleep early, I was tired of trying so hard and not having my prayers even considered, I prayed that God would change my life forever that night and He didn't......that's what I thought anyway.

For me, that night was miserable, I felt so exposed after the sun went down, I kept imagining a mountain lion attacking me, I was completely taken over with fear, I hid deep in my sleeping bag, shaking and silently crying. And then, I couldn't believe it....but it started to rain....I hurriedly crawled out of my bag to cover all my gear and to fold my tarp over my sleeping bag. The wind began to pick up, blowing my tarp off of me. The last thing I wanted to do at the moment was wrestle with a wet tarp while in my bag.....I spent the entire night holding down the corner of the tarp by my head while it rained on and off. The raindrops on the tarp were so noisy I couldn't have slept even if I wasn't afraid for my life. I watched the sunrise and wished that I was back home in my bed, with a roof over my head instead of a tarp. 

During breakfast and the remainder of that day I felt worthless, I started to believe that prayer didn't actually have any effect In my life, that or God didn't even care to show up. I felt like I had been stood up by God, and it sucked. 

I was in a haze all day, I had been hurt and didn't care to be happy, or even try to be.     

  

That night during lectures I had a realization, maybe God didn't show me any supernatural happenings because I didn't need it, I didn't need a sign to make me believe He exists, and that cheered  me up enough to enjoy the rest of the trip. 

I didn't realize until a few weeks later that he had answered my prayer, He had changed my life forever-He had started his teaching on faith without seeing, and I didn't fail my first exam.

The next trip we went on was backpacking, and I had the chance to try out a new kind of solo night.

I found out that I was seated right in the middle of the chipmunk high way, I made several new friends. They all loved to sit a safe distance away and look and listen to my music. 

Everything I did during my previous solo night I avoided doing this solo night. I hiked until I found a beautiful creek with a small waterfall and sat down and pulled out my ukulele, I started playing it and talking to God, it wasn't a formal prayer, I didn't close my eyes-I didn't have to, I could feel Him, I told Him that I just was going to hang out and play and that He could hang out with me if He wanted to ( I still remembered how lonely I felt during the last night) and the entire evening I could feel Him there, I had so much peace....it was incredible. 

Now I'm learning what it looks like to actually have a personal relationship with God, just hang out with Him and have a nice time! :) 

P.s. 

Maybe He'll even give you a song to write like He did for me?  Who knows what He'll do.

The Decision.

July 22,

The day before my 18th birthday, a monumental occasion. I decided to spend my free time doing as many childish things as I could-between chores, lectures and day dreaming I didn't have much  time, but I took advantage of what little time I seized, so let's begin!

I decided to start it off with a hot cup of homemade hot chocolate (even though it was 85 degrees outside and I was wearing a  hoodie) It was delicious! For my first time making it homemade I thought it was pretty drinkable! 

But it did stir up my mischievous side, all of that chocolate and sugar....

That's me thinking up what I wanted to do that day, what havoc I could muster up in a short period of time. And so I started, I had a few hours until my bedtime-which I obviously hid until someone told me to go to bed. 

 All the things I thought to do before I was inevitably thrust into adulthood.

1.) Build a sand village (I suck at castles apparently)

My original thought for this activity was "sand castle" obviously, much to my dismay I discovered that I do not have much of a talent for construction-that is not a career option for me......but I make an excellent building destroyer! 

So that was a lot of work quickly destroyed. It was worth it though, I got sand all over my hands and in my hair-that was an accident, I just forgot I had sand on my hands after  I finished building one of the houses, I was pretty frustrated with my material so my natural response to stress is to run my hands through my hair and make it spiked up all over the place. 

2.) Pick a bunch of weeds and pretend that they are flowers.

When I was little I would pick things from the field next to our house and bring them to my house and put them in vases on the table, I would always get confused when my "flowers" were gone the next morning. 

3.) Do A Cartwheel 

I did do several cartwheels, I was on the gravel driveway and I cut my hand....and ended up extremely dizzy and sat down for a few minutes-which I'm sure looked silly. 

4.) Climb a tree 

This activity made me ashamed to call myself a child. I couldn't climb a tree for the life of me! I don't know where my talent went, but I don't have it in me any longer 

I just looked pathetic when I tried....

I just gave up after that, just like any kid would. But as the sun was setting on my last day of being 17, and I was walking back to the house I started thinking about everything that had happened to me in the past year, the good, the bad and the painful and I realized that it all had to happen to get me to this exact moment, the moment that I decided that I was ready to be an adult, to leave pig tails and tattle telling behind me. I got to the back door, looked over my should at the sun going down over the river, I smiled and walked inside, closing the door firmly behind me. 

I AM _____.

Our third week of lecture phase has been life changing. Everything built on top of each  other, every lecture brought a new step towards Freedom in who we are In Christ and Forgiveness for lies we've believed about ourselfs. Most of my lies I didn't even realize that they were lies! The Devil's sneaky like that.

The teachers this week prayed "Original Design" over all of the staff and students on Wednesday evening and all day on Thursday. What that is is they pray and ask God how He sees a specific person, how He originally designed them and what their giftings are and then they listen for Him to speak. It's an incredible process, I got the opportunity to do this over a few different people and it is great practice on hearing God's voice, and you get to encourage people at the same time! So it's lots of fun.

One hour was scheduled for each person being prayed over, I was extremely nervous when my time came, I was thinking that God was going to reveal my deep, dark secrets to these ladies and I wouldn't have any control on what was being said about me. I was dead wrong.  I sat down on the couch with one of my leaders, and two of the female teachers and they opened by praying aloud and inviting the Holy Spirit to enter the room and speak my Original Design to them, then I sat in silence for 20 minutes as all three of them continuously prayed and wrote down the things they saw and heard about me on little yellow pages, I didn't want to interrupt of course so I just sat quietly in dread about what they were finding out about me.

Finally the 20 minutes was up and they began to read me the things back, I had 6 pages full of blessings and prophecies read to me and my head was spinning (in a good way) when it was all over. Before it was over they all prayed again about what my strongholds (or obstacles) would be that would keep me from fulfilling all of these things God spoke about me. I already had an idea of what it was-I have known my entire life that fear is my strongest weakness, and that was confirmed by two of the three praying. Fear and intimidation were the spirits that were deeply rooted in me, my other stronghold was a surprise at first, I got self hatred, which I didn't think was relevant to me until I took a moment to consider it and it dawned on me that it was true. I was crushed. I had to get these spirits of fear, intimidation and self hatred out of me. I didn't waste any time with it. After  going to God and severing the ties from them to me I felt so light and free and happy, I couldn't stop smiling and giggling.

Please understand that this isn't me being proud and boastful when I say these things, I'm still learning them myself, but these are the things God said about me and how He sees me...

I AM.....

Bold.
Generous.
Joyful.
A leader who leads with conviction.
Confident.
Passionate.
Used to set captives free.
A teacher.
A power evangelist.
A prophetic evangelist.
A voice of reason.
A woman of authority.
An adventurer.
Fearlessly brave.
A dreamer.
A song writer.
A friend.
A bringer of light & peace.
Creative.
A worshipper in stillness.
Fun loving.
Fierce In love.
An arrow in the hands of God.
Beautifully original.
Extraordinary.
Free spirited.
Determined.
A radiant warrior.
Inspiring.
Gentle.
Sitting with Jesus at the right hand of God.
Helping hands.
Smart.
Wise.
A life giver.
A deep thinker.
A threat to Hell.
A winner.
A high achiever.
A protector.
A shield for the weak.
Loved.
Accepted.
A dancer.
More than I know right now.

Some of these were the complete opposite of what I thought of myself, but now this is how I'm starting to see myself, and its wonderful, there is such freedom in looking through God's eyes. He created me and placed these things inside of me and I am just now acknowledging it. I wish everyone could have this experience like I did.....it has changed my perspective of the world and people. I love it. All we have to do is ask God to tell us what He thinks of us and you might be surprised of how fond He is of you.

What are some of you guys Original Design qualities?

A Pain In The Yurt

I have been here for almost 1 month and am already seeing myself change. I believe that I will share with you a flash back, just one of my adventure packed days I have had! This one is especially original.

Saturday, June 22.

I had been in Idaho one full week, I was feeling a little homesick and cooped up so I decided to go Kayaking-to clear my head and get some time alone. I borrowed a one man kayak and got dropped off downriver from the Depot (where I live) I was told it was a 45 minute paddle back "yeah, that sounds pretty nice. I can do that easy." I thought.
I'm glad I went alone because for the first 10 minutes I spent straightening myself out and trying not to capsize.....it was not very graceful or relaxing. I was a bit frightened of going under, but so was Hamster.

Eventually we levelled out and I could paddle nicely, after that it was a beautiful morning! It was the most fun I had had all week, being out on the river at 8:00 am was a wise decision. The air was cool and there was a slight breeze blowing at my back, the sun was just peaking over the tree line, casting shadows. 

My exit snuck up on me, I didn't recognize my house from where I was coming from so I paddled right past it and had to paddle back up stream....it was pretty intense for that early in the morning. There wasn't a bank I could come up next to to step out of the kayak, so I pretty much crawled on top of the front bit and scooted, slowly to shore. It was not very pretty if you have ever tried sitting on top of a kayak while it's in the water you know that it's very wobbly. For the second time that morning I thought I was going to end up falling head first into 3 foot deep water. (It wouldn't have been dangerous, just enough to be annoying and inconvenient) I escaped that misfortune thankfully, but headed straight for the next one. 

In the backyard of the Depot there is a authentic Mongolian Yurt, it is a insulated one room tent that the nomadic Mongolian families live in. ( I encourage you to look into them, I am considering purchasing one to live in.) I went inside to be alone and for the experience of sitting on a bamboo mat in the center of a yurt (which before that day I didn't know they existed) 

The door closed behind me so I got comfortable and got out my journal, I wrote about my morning...I would have stayed longer but my stomach started to sing, I figured it was time for a banana and a bowl of granola. I packed up my things and headed for the door, to my surprise I couldn't push it open, and little did I know that yurts don't have doorknobs on the inside. " Wonderful" I thought. I spent the next ten minutes trying to figure out if there was any kind of lever to make the door swing open, I even went so far as to think that there might be a secret passage way underground that would lead to a room in the Depot. It had only been 30 minutes so I was stupidly optimistic about the situation. 

Me being too cheerful about being trapped.

I settled in again to write, completely confident that someone would happen upon me in the next hour.....and after two hours came and went, with not so much  as a bird on the roof as a visitor I began to wonder  if I should do something. It was beginning to be less enjoyable at this point.

Me, beginning to be myself again. Less cheerful.

I had eaten my snack, drank all my water and nature was calling....I was trapped and couldn't answer that call. But that got me to think, my phone was just about to die but I had just enough juice to make one call, and I gambled with it. I had one of my leaders phone numbers but the day before she had announced that she had misplaced her phone. With this knowledge I made the call and hoped for the best. It rang and rang and with every passing ring my hope dwindled a little more until I was instructed to leave a message-which I didn't bother to do.  I'm sure I looked pathetic sitting on the dusty floor, at a complete lost of what to do when my phone began to vibrate, I dropped my phone on the ground in my scurrying hurry to open it while standing up, I scooped it up and opened it in one fluent motion and planned a rescue. 

Lesson learned, never get closed inside a yurt alone-unless you want to be left there indefinitely. It was a pain in the yurt.....

June 20th. part 2-The Ending to a Memorable Day.

After our lovely hike to the cross we decided as a group to go back to the YWAM camp at the bottom of the mountain and pick up our backpacks and go hike some more! great idea, right? totally. We actually had a destination planned for this hike, our goal; the natural hot springs-I had never even heard of a hot spring before....I was thinking "um...spring is usually hot in Georgia, and its June guys..." Needless to say I was a little behind everyone else. I went along regardless of my lack of knowledge of the event, I mean hey, It was an opportunity to hike with my pack that I love so dearly. I was ecstatic, the forest was beautiful and the weather was perfect!

 

I wish I could live in this valley, the picture doesn't do it justice. We quietly hiked through this valley not wanting to upset anything or disturb the peaceful feeling that it contained.

Up the mountain to the hot springs we headed, dodging toads in the trail and high stepping over fallen trees we made it!...and it smelled terrible. yup, all that way and the entire place smelled like rotten eggs, but it looked so neat.

The water was so hot it was boiling and steaming, and here's the kicker, we brought along a dozen eggs to hard boil. It was so much fun trying to figure out how to get it in and out successfully. I figured it out pretty quickly, not to brag or anything. 

He was a bit confused as to why I wrapped him in a bandanna
 and plopped him into boiling sulfur water.

Boy, after 15 minutes under he came out perfect! though...I'm not sure if it was worth burning off my finger hairs. Too late now. 

June 20th part 1

June 20.

We took our first hikes today as a group. It was a milestone in this adventure. We all took our packs, half packed, and loaded them into Clifford the big red van, and headed out to the YWAM camp up in the mountains. we drove 45 minutes upward and arrived an hour or so before lunch, so to waste some time we thought "hey, lets go back out into the windy, cold mountain air and climb the steepest mountain I've ever seen, that sounds like fun!" so off we went. We came across a steep ditch with a small creek flowing down it. Conveniently there was a fallen tree that we could use to cross over it, it was slippery from the rainfall the night before, but with my super ninja skills I concord it without a fall.

 Of course I wasn't nervous at all, unlike Hamster, he wouldn't even peak out of my pocket.

We went through a lot of elevation change in a short period of time. We climbed for about 30 minuted and then it turned more into boldering on top of a mountain. I did not feel safe at all, I was so high up and the only thing keeping me from falling down this steep, rocky, slippery slope was whatever grip my hands had on the ground around me. After scrambling and crawling up over the rocks I made it to the cross! 

The Cross on top of the mountain was my goal. 

It really was a symbolic afternoon, as Christians we try and go to the cross daily, but it usually takes us climbing and scrambling up our mountains we build ourselves, all of our sin piled up separating us from God. We have to use Christs strength to make it to the top of these kinds of mountains. 

We made it to the cross as a team. 

It was a beautiful view! From the top you can see all of the dead trees surrounding the camp buildings from a wildfire that cut through this forest 7 years ago, but right in the center of the forest the fire jumped right over the top of the campus, as if God put his hand there to protect the land for YWAM.

I guess all the bumping around in my pocket made Hamster sleepy, he was kinda tired when we got to the top. 

To be continued. 

Hamsters Amazing Cascade Adventures.

June 18th.

To get familiar with the town of Cascade the Staff put  together a scavenger hunt. We were put in three groups of two and dropped off at different locations throughout the town, we were given a page long list of places to visit, pictures to take and people to complement. starting at 9:30 my partner and I were dropped off at the gas station at the edge of town.

we did the challenge there (locate the Jones soda in the store) and then decided to head out to the lake. I wasn't aware when we started that it was a 20 minute hike uphill the whole way. So that was fun. At the lake the challenge was to take a picture of our feet in the water. I sat down on the loading dock and began to untie my converse when I heard a person shouting at me, "You'll get your feet wet if you do that!" I looked up and after my eyes adjusted to the glare of the water I saw a old man sitting in a fishing boat across from me on the other loading dock, he and his wife were staring at the two of us in confusion so I shouted back "That's the whole idea." and with that they both shook their heads and continued on with their business.

looking back now we did look rather silly.

 The old man turned out to be correct, I did indeed have wet feet by the end, It was a good addition to the days experience. 

While we were at the lake we had one other memory to make, we had to take a picture wearing life jackets, and when it comes to me, life jacket pictures are never a serious matter, as you can see.

I was an explorer, I'm not sure what Eric is doing though.


After we terrorized the Lake dwellers a bit, Eric and I headed out to Cascade dam to meet one of the staff members (we were promised a snack there) I left my shoes off so my feet could dry from their dip earlier. It was a half mile walk to the dam from the lake, and then back of course. I felt so much like a true woodsy, hippie, backpacking guru person walking that far without shoes-seeing as I rarely even walk inside my house without shoes when I'm in Georgia, I guess I'm already becoming a knew creation through Christ Jesus.
Some things never change though. I threw my shoes back on and we headed back into town. We had to discover how many different flavors of ice cream the Cascade Store has. 11 was the diagnosis,  I checked that mission off of our list and went to exit the building when Hamster convinced me to buy him an ice cream cone, he is a little fellow so he couldn't finish the whole thing-and I wasn't going to be wasteful and throw it away. It was scrumptious, Huckleberry flavored with chunks of blueberries. yummy.

Hamster's eyes are bigger then his stomach, in more than one way.

After ice cream we stopped at several other shops and met people. We only had 6 more tasks to complete when we stopped for lunch at 1:00pm. Turns out we left the hardest things for last, which was a bummer because we both were so full and warm and sleepy, but we still had 2 miles to walk before we were done at 4:00pm. Now there is no doubt in my mind that Jesus loves me because the only fast food restaurant in Cascade is Subway! huzzah! it's less then  mile from my base. That's where we all met up for lunch and let me tell you, Hamster was super excited, he could barely decide on what to get!

He takes lunch very seriously.

The buffalo  chicken sub was too spicy for him so I had to eat it. The rest of the afternoon he was pretty tired and was content on riding in my backpack.

After lunch we had a couple more hours before our deadline, so we set off to find the largest tree in Cascade-it was kind of hard to locate with so many trees around town. I just wanted to find a big stack of cut firewood and say that WAS it. That would have saved us so much time. Eventually we came across it in some guys back yard! we asked him about it and he told us that it was one of the three largest trees in Idaho. Hearing that I figured I should get my picture taken with it, just to make me feel more like a tourist. 

There she is! she's a bit larger in person.....it loses some of the majesty in the picture. 

After a long walk and a slight sun burn, we mostly completed our list and headed back to our leaders house for a nice competitive game of Balderdash. 

A Day I Won't Forget.

June 15 was a long day. It started out a little rough, I stayed up the whole night, my check in bag was too large, things were piling up. We finally got all my luggage into my Dads truck and that's when I started my last goodbyes. My mom had woken up to see me off as well as Jonathan. We did a group hug thing and individual hugs. There was a strange feel to my house as I looked around it, knowing that I wouldn't see any of it for a long time it all seemed to grow more meaningful the closer I stepped to the door.

It didn't take long to check my bag in and get myself orientated, Dad and Janna walked with me to the beginning of security and that's where we had our last goodbyes, I took my bags and went through the security process smoothly, right before I went through the metal detector I wanted to catch my last glimpse of them, and sure enough there they were, I waived goodbye and they waived back, and then disappeared behind a crowd of people trying to get through. As soon as I was reassembled from security I found my way down to the trains and hoped on one, I think I have seen one too many movies with trains getting into accidents because I was waiting for a window to break and people get sucked out or to have something fall and crush an entire car, any, I was paranoid for about 10 minutes while on the way to my gate. It was a longer walk then I had anticipated and I passes all of the restaurants on my way there so when I got to gate 24 and saw that I still had an hour until boarding I figured I would go and hunt for something for breakfast. I have a travel ritual that I go to Martins and order a steak biscuit before all of my flights from home but it wasn't open when we stopped that morning so I had to substitute it for  a plain bagel with cream cheese and  a Naked Mango smoothie, it was delicious and filling but not a steak biscuit. On the flight I sat next to a 60 something year old grandma who was extremely nervous and had never flown before, so I took it upon myself to point out to her all the cloud formations and shadows on the ground, did I mention she was scared of heights? I didn't make her flight any less stressful, but I was quite amused.

at my seat, pretending to be nervous  so the person sitting next to me would feel better about them self.

As soon as I heard the announcement the we had entered Phoenix I felt so free, all my traveling nervous vanished with the view of the city , I wasn't homesick any longer, I felt strong and independent, for the first time since I applied for this school I felt fully prepared to have an adventure. It was exhilarating. 

The captain informed us of the weather in the city "Alrighty folks, in the city of Phoenix this afternoon it's a nice and cool 90 degrees ferenheight." he also mentioned the time (which had changed back an hour) and I freaked because I had to board my next plane in 15 minutes and I had no idea where I was going. The very first lesson I've learned on this trip is how to be an aggressive traveler. I made it in time to board with my class even after I made a quick detour to buy a water bottle, it's incredible how dehydrated you can get whilest being thousands of feet in the air moving at super fast speeds. Great fun.

Moving from one plane right onto the next, I located my seat to Boise, plopped down next to the window (my wonderful father got me two window seats, which made me incredibly happy.) I stuffed my giant blue backpack under the seat in front of me, unwrapped a Lemon Luna bar and devoured it. 

I waited and waited but no one ever sat next to me, I didn't want to get too excited but when we started to taxi onto the ramp I had to have a dance party in my seat from excitement, after my victory dance I settled in to relax. 

My cute traveling buddies with my juice

I ordered a Cran Apple juice for old times sake, I missed my older sister Jess while I drank it. Thinking of our trip to the Bahamas last year.

We had been in the air only 10 minutes when there was an announcement that we were now flying over the Grand Canyon! I did not have that on my radar and flipped out a little inside. It was of course, beautiful, but there was a lot of cloud cover over it so I didn't get the full experience-I'll just have to go back and see it for real. I've put that on my adventure list. 

I settled in for the 1 1/2 hour flight, took a few pictures (that are shown above) sang a few songs (only one aloud-the kid behind me sang along and for a second there I thought everyone might join in and we could break out into a fully choreographed dance number in the air.....but I guess that usually doesn't happen.) 

Saying Goodbye Isn't Hard.....

Today has been a rollercoaster of emotion. I'm having a very difficult time accepting that I am actually leaving tomorrow morning.....I had so many ideas on what to  write about, my last post before I leave. Now all I can think is "what the heck am I doing?!" I'm not feeling very profound or detailed, just scrambled and....terrified mostly.
My Dad is taking me to the airport tomorrow morning, my flight should leave at 8:00 am, if everything goes according to plan I should land in Phoenix, Arizona by 11:00, have a short lay over, then pull out all off my keen street knowledge and cleverness to find my new plane boarding place (I'm pretty sure that's the official name.) Hopefully after boarding the correct plane, passing through a few time zones and being thoroughly confused  to what the actual time is I shall land in Boise, Idaho at what I believe,(if my calculations are correct) will be 12:00 pm (2:00 pm in Georgia) and that will  be the easy part. ^_^
My brother Jonathan is also leaving for YWAM this month, June 27. His base is in Honolulu. I won't see him for 9 months after tonight so he suggested that we hang out all night, and I very readily agreed to the idea, being under the realistic assumption  that "all night" meant something like, "until I get sleepy at midnight".
.....oh silly me. It was 11:30 pm tonight, I had recently just got home from being out with friends and was going to get all of my luggage fully pact and together, Money in order and then double check everything.....he flung open my door and leaned on the frame, a Kroger bag full of Kick Start Orange Citrus Mountain Dews and a head full of plans for the next 5 hours, let me just say that we did not have the same plans in mind. I stuck to my schedule though, I was firm.....and that's only one of the reasons I am now finishing off my first can of Dew and trying to manipulate the ever changing real estate of a 4 person game of Monopoly.......I will probably regret this....aahh it'll be fine.
For all of my true friends out there, you can send me all kinds of edible things and letters  to this address.

Jennifer Reece (Summer BDTS 2013)
c/o YWAM Idaho
PO Box 70
Cascade, ID 83611

I can think of almost nothing more exciting then getting mail my first week away-and even after that, and of course I will return the gesture ( unless it's cookies, in that case I will eat those in there entirety)

So like I said, saying goodbye isn't hard.....it's the leaving that is.

YWAM Is A Reality Now!

It has finally happened! I've been accepted into Youth With A Missions base in Cascade, Idaho! http://www.ywamidaho.org/cascade/Home.html I'm pretty excited. It's always been my older siblings going away to theirs. My older sister went to Orlando, Florida. My brothers went to Argentina, Virginia and Honolulu and now it's my turn (finally).

I have to be at the school on June 15-only two weeks after my high school graduation. To say the least I have an extremely busy month ahead of me. On top of all that I also have a Musical performance this weekend. After all of the going away parties and packing and fundraising I will get on a plain, fly for 10-11 hours and land in the most beautiful space America has to offer.

 I will backpack in the Idaho Mountains for 3 months learning how to Disciple to people effectively in the name of Jesus Christ. Then we will be flown to North India where we will put our newly learned skills to use in Villages and in Towns.

But again, I still have a lot to do before that adventure begins.