McDonalds and SlumPrayer

Hey everyone!

Just wanted to give you a quick recap of the outreach thus far.....

Water Taxi from Belize to Chutemal, Mexico- 1.5 hours

Bus Ride to Cancun- 7 hours

Overnight stay at YWAM base

Flight from Cancun to New York- 3.5 hours

Layover in JFK airport- 22 hours

Flight from New York to Tokyo- 13 hours (Thanksgiving day)

Layover in Japan- 1.5 hours

Tokyo to Manila- 6 hours

Overnight stay in Manila

Ferry (Titanic sized) to Cebu- 22 hours

= Final Destination in 6 days of travel

We are working with the Cebu Missionary Foundation, which has ministries in various places throughout the city. Today our team split up into groups to do outreach in various places...some went to help in the schools, others went to feed those in the cemetery where people who can't afford housing live in the tombs, and my group went to the slums in the garbage dump, where we visited people's homes and prayed for them. Many asked for prayer for their health and for God to protect and bless them. Some needed prayer for illness and some awesome miracles happened- a lame woman was able to walk and a man said he could feel his sight being restored. Then Mari, Katie and I played some basketball with the guys from the slum and we won! I think they let us though :)

We will be doing bible study in the Women's Prison and working with schools later this week. Some of us will help in the clinic, and pretty much where ever there is need we will get to help. Day to day life if different from home...but the foundation is close to a McDonalds which is a special treat. But typically our diet consists of bread, which we have for breakfast and lunch most days. If you all could be praying for the health of our team that would be awesome, also for unity in our team as well. Here we are each other's family and even though we have only known each other for 3 months we have to depend on one another for support when times are hard. Miss you all and thanks for all your support and prayer!

Love in Action

So this week we did outreach in the town of San Pedro. We spent the majority of our time in a place called San Mateo, which is one of the poorest areas in Central America. The people of San Mateo live in squalor. The houses are built on stilts above the swamps because the families have no other place to go. Just this year two children died from minor cuts which had been infected from bacteria in the water...my heart felt for them.

Each day our team went to the Holy Cross Anglican School, where we got to teach in the classrooms. I worked with 8 and 9 years olds, teaching language arts and creative writing. Needless to say, I fell in love with the kids. Yesterday we did community service in the park. As I painted benches on the ocean front, listening to my iPod, there was a moment when everything felt so surreal...and I had this realization that life is so much more than what I know it as.

In the evening we went on a prayer walk and something REALLY cool happened. I was with two girls, Racheal and Katie, and we walked to the end of a street which lead us to a resort on the beachside. I was captivated by an illuminated tree- it just looked so cool and I really wanted a picture of it...so we walk over to it and I am snapping some photos when a woman walks up telling us how the resot is going to decorate the place with these awesome looking trees. Her name was Stacey and she was the manager there. We left that place and were saying a prayer for Stacey when I felt God laying things on my heart for her...Racheal felt like we were supposed to go back...so we turned around and went to hunt Stacey down in the lobby's office. She was a little surprised to see us again and I began to share with her how God feels about her and loves her, at this point I am tearing up and she is tearing up and it was just a beautiful moment of God pursuing this woman. And what is even MORE awesome is that Stacey told us right before we had met she was working in her office when all the sudden she felt like going outside to look at the tree at the exact moment that we stood there taking pictures of it. This, my friends, is what it's all about... God totally set it up.

So if it couldn't get any better, we closed the night with a celebration in the park for the kids, with face painting, water balloons, soccer, and balloon animals. It was a blast and I am super excited for outreach in the Philippines!!

Much love.

Overwhelmed by Generosity

There are two weeks left here at the Belize base before we leave for outreach and as of today I still owed $1,700. After the group of YWAMers learned about this, within about 20 minutes all of my outreach fees had been covered. WOW. I really have nothing else to say so, yeah. These people are amazing, can't believe how they sacrificed so that I would be able to go to the Philippines.

Heck yeah.