10 Weeks!

I left exactly 10 weeks ago. Isn't that insane? Last night I went to the city and there is this wall that overlooks a beautiful river and a bit of the city and I was just in awe of the beauty, and how much God loves me that He would allow me to be here. It looked like something out of a movie. I am so blessed!
We have been so incredibly busy here! We start the day at 7 in the morning, and don't stop until 8 at night, and that doesn't include sermon and dance practices for outreach. So I am very tired but at the same time, energized! A lot of really cool things are happening in Switzerland. We go out for outreach every other day for four hours doing various things, monday we had a teaching outreach about giving our testimony, tuesday we went into the city of Zurich to prayer walk and do what God lead us to do and thursday we are going to work in the Red Light District here, how exciting! We went to the one in Hamburg and now we will go to the one in Zurich. During the prayer walk on tuesday we were supposed to listen to God and see why His heart breaks for this city. A few things I got were :

• riches- Switzerland is the richest country in the world and it is clearly evident everywhere. What do you give a rich person? How do you minister to people who have "everything they want?"
• priorities- people here are so focused on working to earn more money that they lose track of what is important 
• shallow relationships- I really felt that because of the wealth here, many relationships are only surface level. They are focused on the outward appearance, and how good a person can make themselves look.

So while we are here we will be working with the people on these issues and I am so excited to see how God uses us to minister to this area!

Lecture this week has been amazing! Our speaker is Jim Eilson ( I think that's his last name...) and he is originally from America, woohoo! He used to be a baptist preacher and has a southern accent so I feel right at home when he is speaking. He is very fatherly and gentle, the opposite of our last few speakers. The topic is family and how a family works biblically, but many other topics have been involved. He spoke a lot about our testimony and the power of a personal testimony. Something I really liked that he said was "Your testimony is your adventure," and that was really encouraging to me because I consider my relationship with God my life adventure and I never thought of my testimony in that way before! This is also a nice topic because tomorrow night I have to give my testimony to my outreach team, and I am sort of nervous. I mean I have given my testimony multiple times but it has changed so much in these last two months, so please be in prayer as our team goes through this together!

First few days in Switzerland!

We are here finally! Switzerland so far is not that different from Germany. We are staying in a smaller town on the outskirts of Zurich called Winterthur so I haven't really "seen" it yet. On saturday we are going to the city center so that will change my mindset for sure. We are staying in this huge church, four girls to a room, all with beds. Hallelujah! We can also shower everyday! It doesn't get any better than this. There is also the church chef cooking our meals so our cook can have a month's break, not to mention the team we are partnering with has taken care of our outreaches/schedule, so our leaders have a little break as well. Thank goodness, they need it after all the hard work they have been doing for us. Our lectures this week are being done by a guy named Bart ( I don't know his last name, although he is from Holland) and the topic is the Holy Spirit. Now for me, a girl who's grown up baptist her whole life, this is strange. There are new concepts and it's a perspective of christianity I haven't discovered a whole lot of. I know the basics, but I don't realize its the Holy Spirit and not my mind telling me/showing me stuff. Now I know, pheww! But I am learning a lot and praying a lot because some of the teachings go against my past and I have to make sure it is right before I believe just anything. God is really stretching me! I have been pretty frustrated but it is a good frustration. The outreaches have been interesting. We split into groups of four and were assigned a strip of houses/apartments to put letters in the mailboxes talking about a "Jesus film" that we will distribute the next day if they want it. It was very interesting. But who knows the impact we are making! Today we went back to the houses and knocked on the doors to see if they wanted the film. Some people slammed the door in our face, some said no right away, some didn't answer the door and seven people took them! Out of the 50 we asked, seven took them. Thank the Lord! Tomorrow we will do the other 50, my group was overcommitted. The other groups only handed out 30 envelopes. We did 100 haha way to go!

Old place, new perspective

Well we are back at the castle now, some are a little disappointed but I am looking forward to resting for the weekend. It's hard coming from such a big city to a small village. But we head out for Switzerland early monday morning in a bus, thank goodness! It will take us around 10 hours to get there. But we get to drive through the german/czech countryside, it is going to be beautiful! 

I have a few stories I want to share from this past week in Bautzen. First off, we did not have lecture because it was a mini outreach week, meaning we do more ministry stuff. This leaves more room to be open to what God is telling us to do, and we have more freedom to go out to the streets. Tuesday morning we were invited to attend a youth service that only happens twice a year. We arrived and realized there was no translator, luckily I was sitting next to Jona, he volunteered to translate! Thank goodness! However, something I have noticed in Europe is the lack of filter when it comes to profanity, the pastor cussed quite a few times. It is so normal here! They use those words like everyday language and it throws me off every time, mostly because you don’t expect christians to use that kind of talk, but it is so ordinary here. I was laughing so hard during the service. Afterwards we got to hang out with some of the youth, but it was so awkward! Barely anyone spoke english and the room was extremely loud, so any language spoke was covered up by noise. I did get to somewhat talk to three german youth, they were very sweet girls and they thought the service was boring which in a way is a good sign, they are searching for more than the average teenager in their walk with God. Wednesday we had an off day so a few girls decided it would be fun to go to the local community pool (indoor), oh man. If I had known the experience I would have, I wouldn’t have gone! It started off fine, there was this beautiful, shy girl named Goldie who heard about “the americans in town” and helped us get in. Then through hand motions and facial expressions from other germans we found our way to the dressing rooms, lockers and eventually the pool! We swam around for a while, managed to find our way to the shower room and BAM, I’m scarred for life. I forgot how open people in Europe are. There are no such things as private showers! So I manage to take as little time as I could and at the end I notice a towel hanging by my shower so thinking it was there as a hand towel I start wiping off my bottles and am suddenly approached by a angry bare old lady who says “mine,” grabs her towel and walks back. I was so petrified!! But thinking back I laugh pretty hard about it haha good times in Germany! Thursday I got to spend the day working with kids at a day care center and that night we got invited to an open mic night at a youth hostel. It was a very heavy place, as soon as I walked in the graffiti, dark cellar walls and the stench of corn nuts overwhelmed me. We followed the music and discovered it was “devil music” as some call it, an I just couldn’t handle it. My heart was pounding and my spirit wasn’t right. I don’t think it was just the music, it was the overall atmosphere. So Dianna and I stepped outside and prepared ourself for the night. We got to see a few different bands show off their music, and then our guys got up and rocked the house with Jesus music! It turned out that they got to pray for numerous young people and one guy gave his life to Christ! Go God! We were so pumped up afterwards that it was hard to sleep. I think it is amazing how God sets up appointments like that! Early friday morning we took off for the castle and we came right in time for a base picture, there were at least 180 people in that picture, and the three red heads stood together! Front right just in case you were wondering :P 

Bautzen

Hello everyone! I am so sorry I haven't updated in a while, the lack of internet was a a challenge, though it was good for me. We are now in Bautzen, Germany, a town a little bit bigger than Herrnhut. The church we are staying at is surrounded by woods and a gorgeous lake where two of our girls were baptized! This week is like a mini outreach so there is no lecture, which I am okay with, last week was a deep enough lecture to cover this week as well. Our speaker was Sam Hoffman, a very passionate and devout man. He was a missionary to India for 20 years and played  major part in YWAM India. The topic was intercession and spiritual warfare. Monday and tuesday were spent digging into intercessory prayer; the meaning behind it and how Jesus and Paul prayed in the bible. To go along with this topic, Sam encouraged us to attend six o'clock prayer before breakfast (I only went once, I don't do well on only a few hours of sleep!) and he made it in the room where the boys were sleeping, hah! So they were "forced" to attend. We really are blessed with a wonderful group of students. We have men of God who are not afraid to show it, they are the leaders this world needs! The girls here are also an inspiration to me, I love walking around and seeing them in their bibles and deep in prayer, it encourages me to do the same!

Worship at St. Michael's Church

St. Michael's Church

The strip where homeless people live

Oliver and Amber

 Hamburg was such a great experience for me! We got to do so much ministry in the streets and God really blessed the time we had there. Last week Sam wanted us to go to the main strip in groups and kneel on the ground to pray for the city. My first thought was "this man is insane theres so way I'm doing that!" But I prayed about it and God showed me it was going to be a powerful time so I went in joyfully! My group started our prayer at 4:20 and at 4:50 I opened my eyes and literally thought just five minutes had passed, but no! It had already been half an hour, my knees weren't even hurting yet. After that we prayer walked around the city and then I went to an "american breakfast" place, but when describing the food it was "canadian pancakes," "canadian syrup," and "canadian bacon." So I think it was more of a canadian breakfast place. Either way I got pancakes and was very happy. Wednesday we went again to the Reeperbahn and did worship in the plaza (a different plaza than the week before). God used that time to bless many people around us and at one point a group went into a burger king where all the prostitutes hang out and bursted out in worship. The place soon became packed and Chris stood up on his drum and started preaching! There were a ton of divine appointments that night. Thursday was a super intense day,  Sam lead us to the St. Michael church and told us we would be doing worship, intersession and crying out for the city on top of the bell tower. Our mouth's dropped open. The TOP of the bell tower? From where we were standing we couldn't even see the top! So we began the 20 minute walk up 15 flights of stairs, over 200 feet in the air. When we emerged from the stairwell it was so foggy that we couldn't see out of the tower and it was freezing cold! However, worship was amazing and it was a great two hour time of prayer and communion. We were dancing and singing and slowly the fog lifted up and revealed a clear beautiful city night. Hallelujah! Afterwards we got  tour of the church, it was breathtakingly beautiful! Huge organs, paintings, statues, and candles decorated the place and it was so warm and inviting. Friday night we had the option of going to the St. George square, hanging out with the homeless people, interceding at the church or having a chill night and I decided to go to St. George to talk with the prostitutes. It is such a dark place, prostitution is illegal there so even to the world it's not accepted. That's just a glimpse of the darkness felt there. So I bundled up in many layers and headed out!  We met a guy there who works there regularly and he asked if I wanted to walk around with him to speak to the girls so I immediately said yes. I have been waiting for this opportunity for a while! As we walked I realized I don't speak german :( but nonetheless it was a awesome time. He knew all their names and stories and we were able to pray for a ton of girls! I was really inspired by his passion for this ministry, it was so contagious! When I was done walking, Dianna and I decided to "say a prayer like the city of Hamburg ain't never seen before!" Which meant running around the fountain in the middle of the square to keep warm and yelling out prayers. It was so much fun! We started running faster and faster and our prayers got louder and louder! Go God! When it was time to leave I was pretty sad. I prayed that even though we were leaving the next day that God would stay strong, that the seeds planted would sprout and grow deeply into Hamburg and His love would be revealed more and more everyday. At the church that night one of our homeless friends we got to know visited us and Amber sang a song for him, and he asked us all to pray for him, so we did and this man was touched so much! His name is Oliver and if you have a second, take some time to pray for him! He is so close to seeing God :) Also, I got to see my friend Quan again! One sunday I got the urge to go for a walk, and I saw him, but I didn't talk to him because I was alone and wasn't sure if I was allowed. But I felt very bad and guilty, I knew God set that up for me so I turned around and walked back but he was already gone. That night I went to a internet cafe and told my mom that story and how I was so sad, I didn't know if I would see him again. I prayed about it and hoped God would set something up again. So as I left the cafe, I see Quan standing outside the door! Can you believe it?! Of all the cafe's in hamburg, he is standing outside the one I went to! Go God. I was so joyful! I was talking so fast that he could barely understand me, but it was amazing. However, that was the last time I saw him and I won't see him again, so please keep him in your prayers, God is working in him!

Hamburg

I am so sorry I haven’t updated my blog sooner! Between catching trains, random lectures and getting to know the city, there has been no free time! Add in the lack of internet and bam! No blog. Anyways, Hamburg has been interesting so far. We left sunday at 9 and arrived at nine that night. There was a lot of running and missing busses and trains but we still made it! Once we got to the church we were greeted with warm bowls of chicken noodle soup, the only meal of the day. Then we settled in, girls in  one room and the guys in the sanctuary. Why the boys have the huge room I don’t know, but all is good! The girls room is smaller and more crammed, but that just means it won’t be as cold in our room! There is one shower for 50 people and one set of bathrooms, so the rule is two showers a week. Woohoo! I guess in a way that will make us more relatable to the homeless people we’ll be talking to. Yesterday we heard from the leader of YWAM Hamburg and where/what they focus on. After that they sent us out on a scavenger hunt around the city to find the nearest laundry mat, bank, internet cafe, and bakery, and this is really what opened up my eyes. As we were walking around I saw stray dogs roaming the streets, graffiti covering every inch of the buildings, and homeless people running frantically around. There was an area we passed with long sets of stairs and it was covered with mattress’s, shoes, clothes, trash and people laying around. I literally had to stop and wipe my eyes, I was crying so much that I couldn’t see. I am not sure why it hit me that hard, I see this sort of thing in San Antonio all the time, but I think it’s because I asked God to show me His heart for the city, so I felt the same pain He feels constantly. He loves the least of them! After the scavenger hunt we  had a worship/prayer session and covered topics such as, the university’s here, the red light district, the homeless population, church plant, and the church in Hamburg. These are all areas that YWAM Hamburg focus’s on and it is what we will be doing while we are here. This prayer time was so powerful, for everyone! We went on for a over an hour and lifted each area up. Lately God has really been putting human trafficking and child prostitution on my heart, it is something I’ve sadly ignored before, so I spent my time in prayer for this area in Hamburg and soon I became so overwhelmed! It was almost like I could feel their pain and the emptiness they are feeling, and I just began to quietly weep, I didn’t exactly know what else to do. I felt like words couldn’t really express what was going in, it was such a special experience for me, to really feel God’s heart for those lives. Each one of them are so precious to the heart of God, but they only know a life of pain, shame and chains. I am so excited to go down to those areas, I’m ready to see it for real, not just in movies. I want to see the reality so I know how to pray! Today another leader from the base, the one in charge of the human trafficking ministry, came and talked to us about what we can do. So wednesday and friday nights we will be going down to the red light district and praying/worshiping and if God leads us, talking to  some of the girls. Briefly though, otherwise we can get them into deep trouble. So please be in prayer as we go out and do this! It is going to be an intense time of spiritual warfare. Tonight we are going in to the city to do some sort of homeless ministry and I am excited to see what happens and who we meet, I love meeting people! My friend Jonah (a young, super tall, hilarious german) said something that stuck with me, “I hate how I can’t see people in the city-their eyes are so empty. There is nothing there.” And that is why we are here, to fill that emptiness! I’ll update later on what happens tonight!