So much I could write about SA. I'll write more about the specific outreaches later but for now I want to share what it was all about.
The South African Training Team Experience was made up of four outreaches
1. Rural Outreach
2. Inner City Outreach
3. World Faith Outreach
4. Global Challenge Outreach
Before and in between each outreach we did training on different topics related to missions. Some examples would be.
1. How to give a sermon
2. How to write a newsletter
3. Outreach to children
4. HIV/AIDS information and outreach
5. World Faiths - how they differ ideas on witnessing to people of other faiths
6. Creative outreach - drama, miming, dance etc
7. Mission Mobilization - how to share about missions in your church and share the importance of missions to others.
8. Church History
9. The Father Heart of God - essential that God is who he says he is, not what the sum of your experiences in a sinful world says he is.
10. We did team building activities.
11. Experienced 14 different cultures on our team of over 56 people.
12. Working with a team, being lead by people younger than you, or by you.
What we learned in South Africa - will greatly benefit us on the field!
Monday, July 5, 2010
Sunday, July 4, 2010
My Story - OM, Green Lights, Heading to South Africa
From that point we were heading in a specific direction - following in obedience. We went to OM's outbound where we questioned them, they questioned us a lot. We met with counselors, we learned about OM and how it is structured. We worshiped, we did funny things running around Atlanta, GA with a team doing crazy things like taking a photo with a man holding his business card and a can of Coke. Coke is made in Atlanta, GA. We got extra points because he let us pick him up. It was about teamwork, and a kind of raise but mainly just for fun.
After that - OM came back and asked us to do a six month mission training experience in South Africa. At first I wasn't happy about that. Their reasoning was good. It was to give us experience as a family overseas, since where we were headed in Central Asia wasn't an easy country they wanted us to experience a cross-culture life as a family. They also wanted us to take a vision trip to said country.
The vision trip is where the green lights came into play. Everything seem to mesh for us and the people we would be working with, the projects we would do. It was neat the way God really had that whole visit play out. So many stories I could share, but I can't on here.
After that vision trip we raised support for South Africa and headed there. More about that in my next post.
After that - OM came back and asked us to do a six month mission training experience in South Africa. At first I wasn't happy about that. Their reasoning was good. It was to give us experience as a family overseas, since where we were headed in Central Asia wasn't an easy country they wanted us to experience a cross-culture life as a family. They also wanted us to take a vision trip to said country.
The vision trip is where the green lights came into play. Everything seem to mesh for us and the people we would be working with, the projects we would do. It was neat the way God really had that whole visit play out. So many stories I could share, but I can't on here.
After that vision trip we raised support for South Africa and headed there. More about that in my next post.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
My Story - Feed My Sheep
Not Russia, you want me to go where?
Upon picking Operation Mobilization (OM) as our organization we then had a dilemma. Tony's interest is in disaster relief. The country we felt called to was Russia. OM didn't have any disaster relief projects in this country. Which was it Russia or disaster relief?
We decided it was disaster relief. We were given a few countries one in Europe one in Central Asia. I loved the idea of the country in Europe but it looked like at that time it wasn't going to be possible. So the Central Asia country came to the top. There were many aspects of the job we would do there that was fabulous, but it was a hard country. I didn't want to take my children there.
Then I had my own meeting with God.
I was praying about location, about where God would want to go. I was telling Him that I didn't want to go to this country.
He asked me why? I answered, "Because I can't take my kids there."
He said, "Who's kids?" Me, "Okay God, they are your kids, but you gave them to me!"
He quietly said, "Feed my sheep, not the sheep you want to feed, but the sheep I give you."
I couldn't really say anything else. When I went downsides I told Tony, "Okay we will head in this direction but I need green lights."
From there God gave us so many green lights it was amazing. I can't really talk about the country or what the green lights were on the internet but needless to say I stand amazed at how God works sometimes.
I'll talk a bit more about this later but as for now...
Upon picking Operation Mobilization (OM) as our organization we then had a dilemma. Tony's interest is in disaster relief. The country we felt called to was Russia. OM didn't have any disaster relief projects in this country. Which was it Russia or disaster relief?
We decided it was disaster relief. We were given a few countries one in Europe one in Central Asia. I loved the idea of the country in Europe but it looked like at that time it wasn't going to be possible. So the Central Asia country came to the top. There were many aspects of the job we would do there that was fabulous, but it was a hard country. I didn't want to take my children there.
Then I had my own meeting with God.
I was praying about location, about where God would want to go. I was telling Him that I didn't want to go to this country.
He asked me why? I answered, "Because I can't take my kids there."
He said, "Who's kids?" Me, "Okay God, they are your kids, but you gave them to me!"
He quietly said, "Feed my sheep, not the sheep you want to feed, but the sheep I give you."
I couldn't really say anything else. When I went downsides I told Tony, "Okay we will head in this direction but I need green lights."
From there God gave us so many green lights it was amazing. I can't really talk about the country or what the green lights were on the internet but needless to say I stand amazed at how God works sometimes.
I'll talk a bit more about this later but as for now...
Friday, July 2, 2010
My Story - Missions Eight Years Waiting...
Tony and I got married on March 31, 2001. It was a fabulous wedding and I loved everything out our day. We honeymooned in New Orleans, because of Tony's love of Blues music and since our "theme" for our wedding was of an old world Blues wedding - at least in our mind.
While in Russia my prayer was to come back to the States, pay off my college debt and return to world missions. Hopefully with a like minded husband. I married Tony, knowing he had no desire for world missions but while we were dating God moved him into a ministry position at The Salvation Army - as the team leader of volunteers. I married him knowing that local missions was probably our focus, but every once in awhile I would say, "We could always do world missions."
Our first child was born in 2003, during his first year we hosted an foreign exchange student from Russia. I wanted to share my love of Russia with my husband and this was a good way to do just that. Our second child was born in 2005 we gave her a Russian name. When this child was about 4 months old Tony had a dream that changed our direction.
The way Tony tells it - he didn't put a lot of stock in dreams but he was praying with our son. Sometimes when we pray with our children it is like we are praying over them, praying as if we are them and praying for them. This night he says was a little mixed up. But he distinctly remembers praying for God to give us our vision. That night he had a dream and when he woke up it was if God said to him, "There is your vision." He went downstairs and wrote the dream down.
The way he explained it - he was in a Russian country and there were two parts of the dream. One part something happens to a vehicle he is driving. The person with him, says - don't worry just follow me we will figure it out. The second part of the dream he is trying to get a license for our dog and insurance. He is told by someone don't worry just follow me. Both parts of the dream took place overseas and both parts of the dream just told him to be obedient and follow.
Pretty much right after that - Tony went to help with the aftermath of Katrina in New Orleans. There were so many aspects of that trip that tied back to the don't worry follow me. He had a wonderful experience seeing God work there. The stories of faith that he heard and experience are fabulous proof of a personal and intimate God.
From there we decided to pursue the idea of world missions. Tony and I tend to run on different tracks - when I see an idea I just want to go and do it. Tony needs to see all sides of it and understand what it is before he does that. So he put God off a bit, he says now if he had to do it over he might not have done that, but in all honesty I think it is the road that God has us on.
In 2006 Tony started reading missionary biographies. We read wonderful stories of men and women of faith. I will try at some point to highlight them on this blog.
Ten years after I first went to Urbana I returned as a married women with a man who was also interested in pursuing World missions. It was a wonderful experience to be there together and bring in the year 2007. I think our third chid was conceived at Urbana or shortly there after. As our third child was born in 2007. She is our 50,000 baby as I ended up with some medical problems and had to take blood thinners throughout the pregnancy that without insurance would have costed us over $4,000 a month. Our town had a devastating flood that year as well.
During that summer we narrowed the mission organization to two and ended up going with the one that we thought at the time would get us on the field sooner. That hasn't happened, as it seems we are on a slow road. In Sept of 2007 before the baby was born we decided to go with Operation Mobilization (OM).
So over 8 years after I prayed that I would marry a man interested in world missions I was seeing the fruit of that prayer. It is a real lesson to me that if we live in a short view of prayer - in that prayer is not answered in our timeline then God is not answering our prayers. We miss the prayers that God does answer on His timetable!
While in Russia my prayer was to come back to the States, pay off my college debt and return to world missions. Hopefully with a like minded husband. I married Tony, knowing he had no desire for world missions but while we were dating God moved him into a ministry position at The Salvation Army - as the team leader of volunteers. I married him knowing that local missions was probably our focus, but every once in awhile I would say, "We could always do world missions."
Our first child was born in 2003, during his first year we hosted an foreign exchange student from Russia. I wanted to share my love of Russia with my husband and this was a good way to do just that. Our second child was born in 2005 we gave her a Russian name. When this child was about 4 months old Tony had a dream that changed our direction.
The way Tony tells it - he didn't put a lot of stock in dreams but he was praying with our son. Sometimes when we pray with our children it is like we are praying over them, praying as if we are them and praying for them. This night he says was a little mixed up. But he distinctly remembers praying for God to give us our vision. That night he had a dream and when he woke up it was if God said to him, "There is your vision." He went downstairs and wrote the dream down.
The way he explained it - he was in a Russian country and there were two parts of the dream. One part something happens to a vehicle he is driving. The person with him, says - don't worry just follow me we will figure it out. The second part of the dream he is trying to get a license for our dog and insurance. He is told by someone don't worry just follow me. Both parts of the dream took place overseas and both parts of the dream just told him to be obedient and follow.
Pretty much right after that - Tony went to help with the aftermath of Katrina in New Orleans. There were so many aspects of that trip that tied back to the don't worry follow me. He had a wonderful experience seeing God work there. The stories of faith that he heard and experience are fabulous proof of a personal and intimate God.
From there we decided to pursue the idea of world missions. Tony and I tend to run on different tracks - when I see an idea I just want to go and do it. Tony needs to see all sides of it and understand what it is before he does that. So he put God off a bit, he says now if he had to do it over he might not have done that, but in all honesty I think it is the road that God has us on.
In 2006 Tony started reading missionary biographies. We read wonderful stories of men and women of faith. I will try at some point to highlight them on this blog.
Ten years after I first went to Urbana I returned as a married women with a man who was also interested in pursuing World missions. It was a wonderful experience to be there together and bring in the year 2007. I think our third chid was conceived at Urbana or shortly there after. As our third child was born in 2007. She is our 50,000 baby as I ended up with some medical problems and had to take blood thinners throughout the pregnancy that without insurance would have costed us over $4,000 a month. Our town had a devastating flood that year as well.
During that summer we narrowed the mission organization to two and ended up going with the one that we thought at the time would get us on the field sooner. That hasn't happened, as it seems we are on a slow road. In Sept of 2007 before the baby was born we decided to go with Operation Mobilization (OM).
So over 8 years after I prayed that I would marry a man interested in world missions I was seeing the fruit of that prayer. It is a real lesson to me that if we live in a short view of prayer - in that prayer is not answered in our timeline then God is not answering our prayers. We miss the prayers that God does answer on His timetable!
Thursday, July 1, 2010
My Story into world missions - Aberdeen - Girl meets Boy - the short version
I moved to Aberdeen the spring of 1998, my friend Heather had a job here and we had always said we would be roommates one day before we got married. We even said - go to some state somewhere and live see what happens. We did some local work through our church to lower income children picking them up for a weekly bible lesson and bringing them to church.
We decided to start an adult Bible study - we sent flyers to all the churches in town. We were very non-denominational! Our goal - well to meet Christian men of course, but also to make friends with like minded people. We held the bible study at the Red Rooster Coffee House. Tony came to that Bible study and well it wasn't love at first sight. He kind of had to grow on me and he was, well --- clueless.
The Bible study started in Sept of 1998 and I would say it was about March or April before I realized that he was a pretty good catch. I was looking for a teaching job, in May Heather and I moved into a tiny apartment with the idea that I would be moving by Sept.
I invited myself over to Tony's to watch TV since we didn't have cable and I would pray for him. At the end of May, I prayed and "told" God I would stop looking for a teaching job and give Him a year to get Tony and I together. I prayed, prayed, prayed, prayed and prayed some more.
I almost took some bad advice and told him my feelings but Tony himself told me that if someone needs to spill all their "love" out they are not ready. So I held my tongue and prayed some more. I went to Hawaii for my Russian teammate's wedding reception to a Russian friend, prayed and came back and prayed.
Then on Sept. 12 1999 Tony and I tried to get a bunch of people to go see a movie and no one wanted to go with us. So we went ourselves. During that movie Tony took my hand and held it. He himself doesn't know what made him do that. I think God picked his hand up and put it on mine! At that moment I knew that we would get married. Tony didn't yet but I knew!
Aberdeen
1998-1999
We decided to start an adult Bible study - we sent flyers to all the churches in town. We were very non-denominational! Our goal - well to meet Christian men of course, but also to make friends with like minded people. We held the bible study at the Red Rooster Coffee House. Tony came to that Bible study and well it wasn't love at first sight. He kind of had to grow on me and he was, well --- clueless.
The Bible study started in Sept of 1998 and I would say it was about March or April before I realized that he was a pretty good catch. I was looking for a teaching job, in May Heather and I moved into a tiny apartment with the idea that I would be moving by Sept.
I invited myself over to Tony's to watch TV since we didn't have cable and I would pray for him. At the end of May, I prayed and "told" God I would stop looking for a teaching job and give Him a year to get Tony and I together. I prayed, prayed, prayed, prayed and prayed some more.
I almost took some bad advice and told him my feelings but Tony himself told me that if someone needs to spill all their "love" out they are not ready. So I held my tongue and prayed some more. I went to Hawaii for my Russian teammate's wedding reception to a Russian friend, prayed and came back and prayed.
Then on Sept. 12 1999 Tony and I tried to get a bunch of people to go see a movie and no one wanted to go with us. So we went ourselves. During that movie Tony took my hand and held it. He himself doesn't know what made him do that. I think God picked his hand up and put it on mine! At that moment I knew that we would get married. Tony didn't yet but I knew!
Aberdeen
1998-1999
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)