"head & shoulders, knees & toes"
...Every Thursday myself, along with 4 other students and another DTS staff person go spend our afternoon volunteering with World Relief. There we help with english classes held for refugees to Seattle and the surrounding areas.
Now, let's be honest here: this is probably one of my most favourite things I do every week. I have a TREMENDOUS amount of admiration for these people. So much so, that some days, right then and there in the middle of saying "now...put your tongue between your teeth and kind of blow out....that'll make a T-H sound.....yep, you got it....no, not zzzzz....thhh....." a single tear almost squeezes it's way out of my eye because I start to think of all the things these people have gone through to get to Seattle. The people we teach are anywhere from my age to 65+ years old...and here they are trying to understand silent L's and K's...and the 50 different ways to pronounce vowels....GOSH! I just can't tell you how my heart literally feels like it might just burst on behalf of these people. THESE (in my humble opinion) are the people who deserve recognition in this world. And, they're also some of my favourite people just to hang out with.....they're always inviting us over to their homes to spoil us rotten and feed us till we're sick, and they have MUCH less than we do. Here they are, a family of 6 or so crammed into a small apartment complex. I mean, you may not have caught on (or perhaps you're sneaky and you have...) but I could go on and on about how amazed I am by their courage and what lovely people they are.
So today I was teaching a Russian man named Usup and I thought...I
have to blog about this. I like to describe myself as the type of person who stumbles upon these moments of intense love or joy and I just have to share it! I have so many funny stories about our times teaching in the English class. Please, please ask me about them whenever you like!
Here is a picture of my friend, Rossim: 
Here we were teaching them body parts. We had them write down the parts on sticky notes and stick them to eachothers bodies....it was quite the laugh....they were pretty good sports about singing "Head and shoulders, knees and toes" too. They did the actions and everything! I also found out that Americans have a completely different tune for that song, than we, Canadians. I was totally lost when I found myself singing a totally different tune than the rest.....
so next time you hear that song, think of a bunch of adults, laughing and giggling in embarrassment as they learn "eyes, ears, mouth & nose" in english....
much love to all xox
PRESENTING: Team Zambia - as promised!
TOP ROW: chris mcdonald. myself (amanda martens). becky leblanc. allena barnes. stephanie pizzillo. chrissie nichols (dts school leader and co-leader to zambia). eva crowe. ben fouche (other co-leader).
BOTTOM ROW: april hazen. heidi kemp. sarah topp. ann sergistad.
a blogged version of snail mail
I will be sending these letters out, but wanted to post a copy of it on my blog, so that everyone could read it:
WE'RE GOING TO ZAMBIA!!!Dear Friends & Family,
In January our team of 12 will be leaving for Zambia, Africa. We will be working in a place called Luanshya, which is 45 minutes south of Ndola. Our team will work with an organzation called "Hands at Work".
The Republic of Zambia is a large country at the heart of sub-equitorial Africa. More than a quarter of it's 11-12 million people live in two urban areas near the center--in the capital Lusaka and in the industrial towns of the Copperbelt. The rest of Zambia is very sparsely populated, particularly the west and the northeast, and the majority of people make thier living as subsistence farmers.
In four decades of independance, Zambia has found peace but not prosperity. Today it is one of the poorest and least developed nations on the earth. Around two-thirds of the population lives on less than a dollar a day.
Zambia's problems have since the mid 1980's been compounded by on of the world's most devastating HIV and AIDS epidemics. The statistics alone are shoking:
-One in every six adults is living with HIV
-98,000 people died of AIDS in 2005
-Life expectancy at birth has fallen below 40 yrs.
-710,000 children are AIDS orphans
"Hands at Work" is an organization working with orphans and those suffering with HIV/AIDS. We will be staying with a man named Pastor Jacob and his wife. They head up "Hands at Work" in Zambia and are looking forward to having our team there.
We will be spending lots of time in local schools, building relationships with the kids through games, music and dance, stories and arts and crafts. Many of the children have HIV or AIDS themselves, and/or have lost family and friends to the disease. We will be blessed to have an opportunity to bring the love of Christ to them in this way.
We will also have opportunities to go on home visits with the medical teams. These teams go out to the villages and care for those who are dying of AIDS. The teams help them with basic care and medication, as well ministering to them with prayer and encouragement.
We want to include you in the work God has prepared for us in Zambia. During this time, prayer is essential and we would ask you to remember us as often as you can. The other need we have is financial.
Each student must raise $3,150 by December 15th to go on this outreach. We want to encourage you to pray about your involvement, and ask you to join with us in sharing the love of Jesus with the people of Zambia.
Please send all support to:
YWAM SEATTLE
5029 ROOSEVELT WAY NE
SUITE 100
SEATTLE, WA 98105Love, Team ZAMBIA 2007
PS...as soon as someone emails me the picture of our team... I will have that up here too.
.LOVE TO YOU ALL.
a BIG surprise!!!
....the other day i was talking to my dad on the phone...we were discussing what i should get for my mom's upcoming birthday....
i asked him to try to get some ideas from her and let me know, so he called me the next day and said he wasn't really getting anything good out of her. he then asked me what i would be doing on friday (this upcoming one) and if i'd want to go shopping. i thought that was a funny questions seeing as how i'm in seattle and he's in winnipeg.
i laughed and thought maybe he meant he would take his phone to the mall and we'd "shop together" over the phone. and as my laughter slowly fizzled out i asked "in seattle?" to which he responded "yes, in seattle".
can you imagine my SHOCK!? he told me they had booked tickets only the day before and that, yes, he and my mom would be here this friday until the following tuesday! they were going to just show up and surprise me, but they decided to let me know ahead of time.
SO, thank you to all who knew that this is what I wanted so badly and prayed with me for an opportunity for them to visit me here. it's the best birthday present in the world and i will hopefully have a picture or 2 to put on my next blog.
love to you all!
still pondering...
when i say the word "intimacy", I wonder what most people would say it means. we always talk about intimacy with God and I guess I've never quite understood exactly what that meant, other than being very close to Him. in the context of a marriage we often say that intimacy means being "one" with the other person. or physcially intimate. but i think intimacy goes way beyond physically naked in front of your spouse or God. i think it's standing completely bare, or to be completely known by someone else and sill loved and accepted, even in your flaws. it's hard for us to grasp that we have the freedom to be that known to God and come away unscathed. except that he already knows us.... it's not like any of our shortcomings or flaws are any shock to Him. for many of us, it's simply much more comfortable to remain hidden, it's also much more safe. you can't really be hurt if you can't be seen. and so we go on dying to be known and accepted for who we really are beneath all our skin, but terrified out of our wits to let ourselves be known. not all of us, i'm sure some of us have figure this out and learned the freedom in being honest.....but some of us are paralyzed by the fear of being rejected. sad.
i was thinking about a friend the other week and i had this picture in my mind of myself standing before God, and I began to strip down. It was terribly alkward, but I kept stripping away the layers....until I was completely uncovered. So there I am, completely unhidden before God and now I'm surrounded by the layers of filth, deceit, lies, and all my shame. It's there, at my feet in a circle around me. NOW I HAVE A CHOICE: I either stand in the middle of all of it and eventually sit down which would lead to me picking through the layers...remembering....and maybe even putting some back on because they seem so "comfortable" or perhaps simply familiar.
Isn't this what we all do? I mean, we get to this point where we're totally seen by God, but then we fear what He'll do with us next, so we start putting all the crap back on and we never actually find wholeness. We never walk away from what He's saved us from! We just parade around in circles, torturing ourselves and wondering how to get free.
WALK! We've left it at His feet, now WALK AWAY....leave it with Him. Isn't this what He died for? I'm pretty sure He didn't die to watch us meander through our muck endlessly, all the while feeling horrible about ourselves.
I guess, in thinking of my friend, I've seen so many people, including myself....talk and talk and talk and talk about our struggles or wanting to know God more, but then I see us keep flapping our gums with our feet firmly planted to the ground. We won't budge, we'll just talk about how we want to move forward.
I want to move forward...even if I don't know what that looks like, or I don't know in what direction. Forward is best, backwards just leads to depressing circles and hopelessness. And I know my God is much bigger than that.....i want to be known by Him, I want intimacy like this.
