Across the Pond

Yes I have, I have traveled across the pond to the lovely country of England! I am very excited to be in the UK. There is so much history and culture surrounding you ever where that you go, if makes every time driving around a unique little adventure/history lesson.
This is without a doubt going to be a very unique and different semester. Myself, along with my co-leader Kate, are leading four interns that are from the UK and are in their own country. We are working with our partner ministry here in the UK called United Christian Broadcasting (UCB) so the interns are gaining media experience as well as doing Book of Hope ministry in the UK, Portugal and South Africa. The uniqueness of the semester isn't just due to the media factor thrown in there, but because we are two Americans leading four British interns in their own country. While America and England are both Westernized countries, there are many cultural differences. The meaning of words to start with. You would not go up to a woman and say nice pants, where did you get them? Pants to them is underwear, the correct word would be trousers. Also, you need to be careful which way you give someone the peace sign. Palm forward is alright, but showing the back of your hand is like giving someone the middle finger in America. All little suddle things, but very important when your daily job is communicating with thousands of students and school officials. I am anticipating this semester very much. All of our interns are great and I know there are so many things God wants to teach them and grow them in. Please pray for our team that we would be unified and make ourselves available to be used in all God desires this term and the future! I will continue to keep you updated on our exciting and enthralling cultural adventures.

Intermission

  South Africa was exactly that, an intermission right in the middle of my time in Madagascar. Although I was leading a 10-day team from the States it was a nice little breather because a lot of South Africa is like America. First of all the national language is English so everything is in English and pretty much everyone speaks English, well at least a form of it. They also have things there like McDonalds, KFC (which by the way has great ice cream) and you can eat salad and the fruits and a lot of other familiar foods. The first day my friend and I arrived, we went into a rest stop for something to eat and were honestly so overwhelmed. We didn’t know what to do with ourselves and what to pick out, I am almost positive people thought we were a little crazy. As you can guess in Madagascar we really don’t have many options. Also driving on the roads you would think you were in America because they look similar, road signs and all, maybe except for that whole driving on the other side of the road thing. All and all it’s pretty easy to mistake South Africa for America.

   You might be thinking, did she do ministry or go on a vacation? Like I said it’s easy to mistake SA for America, until you learn the truth. The truth is South Africa has one of the highest AIDS rates in the World. The truth is you look around you and can still see the evidence and aftermath of apartied. South Africa can be deceiving because as an American you feel pretty comfortable in it. I know for my team it was easy to slip into that and we had to keep reminding them; this is South Africa, this is still Africa. Most of the schools are still not integrated so you have your black South African schools and white South African schools, kind of reminiscent of America pre Civil Rights Movement. We spent our week in the northern part of the country and it was a great time of ministry. The kids were very receptive and seemed to genuinely want to hear what we had to say. The older kids especially seemed in search of hope for their lives.  The team had some great stories and I know they walked away truly impacted by this experience. I know my eyes have been opened to this country in a whole new way and will continue to pray that their hearts would be softened to the Lord because they are truly wonderful people. 

Tuna Melts and Brownies

   I have good news. We found the Cookie Shop! It was an exciting time as my friends and I par took of tuna melts, brownies and apple pie a la mode. Now don’t get me wrong our food has by no means been bad here, but there is something comforting about familiar food when you are amongst an unfamiliar culture. Sort of something to ease the chaos you feel in trying to digest (no pun intended) all of the new things you experience everyday. Well needless to say we are going to try and visit the Cookie Shop again when possible. 

   Our time of ministry here has been great; everyone here is extremely kind and very helpful. We got to do a distribution in a school this past week and show the GodMan. The three other girls and myself were excited because we have been here a month and that was our first time with children since most of our time has been spent meeting with ministries and doing trainings. I think we were sort of going through with drawl since we are usually with kids at least five days out of the week. The kids were of course adorable and lots of fun.

  We also meet with a missionary that use to work with Book of Hope here and a national pastor that does a lot of work with the GodMan film and they just opened our eyes even more about the Malagasy people. Outside of the capital city that we are in right now, Antananarivo, 80% of children aren’t in school, they get to go to school maybe one or two years and then they have to work with their families in the rice field or at home. On top of that about 70% of adults in the costal areas are illiterate, that number amazes me. What that means for us is we have to look at creative and different ways to communicate the Gospel. It is really exciting to be a part of this; it shows me a completely different aspect of ministry, more of the nitty gritty.

  On Wednesday I am headed off to South Africa for two weeks to lead a 10-day team from the United States. I have never been to South Africa so I’m pretty siked about it and being able to work with this team. Please keep us in your prayers for protection as we minister and travel. (Sorry I haven’t been able to post any pictures, the connection is slower).  

It's Not Like the Movie

   So when I told people that I was going to Madagascar almost everyone asked if I had seen the animated movie Madagascar. Well I saw the movie while here in Madagascar with my friends and it's definitely not like the actual country at all, incase you were wondering. However, we are hoping to see some Lemurs!! 

   This country is like no where I have ever been before. I can't fully describe the people either because they are like all different kinds of people put together. You see people Asian looking, African looking and Hispanic all at once, but they are Malagasy!! They speak Malagasy and French here and I thought I might be alright because I took 3 years of French in High School, but when I go to speak Spanish comes out. More than likely because I just spent 3 weeks speaking Spanish. Kind of funny because when I first got to Honduras I was speaking French, so hopefully my mind can straighten things out soon! It has been a different kind of work here, a lot of meeting people and setting up more meetings and trainings, but I am enjoying every bit of it. Our next mission here is to find this restaurant called the American Cookie Shop because we've heard that you can get things there like Tuna melts, brownies and cheesecakes. I'll let you know if that mission is successful:-) 

   Please continue to keep us in your prayers for wisdom and discernment with all the people we meet. Also, we have a shipment of Books coming from India and we need it to come soon, preferably the end of September, so please add that to the list! Thanks so much and i'll keep you updated. 

Honduras Trip Part 1

    Seven years ago this summer I was in Honduras with Book of Hope as an intern, little did I know everything was about to change. The trip that summer is where God really began to transform my heart and open my eyes to the hurting world around me. At the age of seventeen I came to the realization that there was so much more out there in the world and my own little place of East Hartford, Connecticut was barely the tip of it. So it was interesting to see how my world had come full circle bringing me back to where it all started.

   Our time of ministry in San Pedro Sula can be compared most accurately to a roller coaster ride, a really hot sticky roller coater ride considering the weather. I was there helping to lead a 10 day team of teenagers from two youth groups who are from Missouri and our week started out with strikes. Gas is $5 a gallon in Honduras, which is a lot for America and people in Honduras make even less annually then we do. So there was a transportation strike to fight the gas prices, which meant most of the teachers couldn't get to work, which means the children didn't go to school. Luckily we were able to find some schools where the children stuck around and we got to spend a lot of time with the kids since there weren't time constraints.  Tuesday and Wednesday were strike free and at night we had an opportunity to show the movie the God Man, which is an animated film of the life of Jesus, with a live action story running parallel. Thursday and Friday the public school teachers decided to strike because they aren't getting paid enough by the government. So yet again our plans had to change and we had to try and get into private schools. Fortunately the doors opened for us and it was amazing to see how God orchestrated everything. On Friday we were able to get into two schools that have denied Book of Hope entrance in the previous years. The first was an all girls Catholic school and the second was a military school. The military school was our very last school for the week and one of the team leaders had the privilege of leading the director of the school to the Lord. He said we were welcomed to come back to the school anytime and bring the Book of Hope! It is so funny how we as humans have all of these well laid out plans and then God comes along and changes everything up; always for the better. On Saturday I head out for Honduras again for two more weeks and two more 10 day teams. Please continue to keep me in your prayers for strength and wisdom and the teams that will be coming to Honduras. Many Blessings!!!

Here is the link to my first set of pictures    http://www.flickr.com/photos/mindytheworldtraveler/sets/

Uganda Summer 2008

  Well unfortunately I wasn't able to update my blog while I was in Uganda due to some technical difficulties :-) So i'm going to try and condense 6 weeks into a few paragraphs.

     Going to Uganda, Africa I really had no idea what to expect. I knew there would be poverty and sickness and

 funny smells, but you never know exactly what it's going to look like and how you are going to react. On top of that I was helping to lead a team of 15 interns, which meant I was responsible for their well being both physically and spiritually, as

 well as helping them deal with their first time in another country. Let's just say it was a lot more on my plate than I thought was going to be placed there.

       We started out in the capital city of Kampala going into the schools doing dramas, sharing our testimonies, distributing books and getting to talk and play with the kids. We even got to go to an all girls Muslim orphanage next to our hotel and share with them the Book of Hope. We also got an opportunity to visit this orphanage on one of our "days off" called Watoto. It is an amazing place, they take kids in not to just give them a home, but to raise them up as leaders. If you have a chance check them out online. Our next week was spent in Luwero that was so much quieter and the grounds our guest house were on were beautiful. The week of ministry was great and we got to spend a lot of one on one time talking with the kids in the schools.                                Then the third week came, we went to this place called Gulu. On the way up to Gulu we got to go on a Safari which was amazing. Afterwards we took a "short cut" after getting out of the Safari and it ended up taking us 5 hours to get to the hotel instead of the 2 it was suppose to take us. Then we got to the hotel at about 11 p.m. and they had given our hotel rooms away. So we were scrambling to find rooms for 22 people at 11 o'clock at night, thankfully we were able to and everyone had a bed for the night. The thing about Gulu is there is a lot of history that goes with it. Joseph Conney use to have his headquarters in that area along with his army, the Lords' Resistance Army. Conney is a man trying to lead a revolution against the Ugandan government and unfortunately is using the Bible as his basis. He is responsible for making little boys starting anywhere from ages 6 and up become child soldiers and do things not even grown ups should do, as well as taking little girls and making them sex slaves to his army. Joseph Conney has fled to the Congo for now and his army is not as big as it use to be. Needless to say we were facing a lot of spiritual opposition. 

However, I think that personally I was affected the most there then any of our other locations. One of the schools we distributed in had boys in it that use to be child soldiers and as I was handing a book to a boy that was about 9 or 10, I saw that his face was half burned and it hit me. Nothing that I do or say is going to help these kids, it has to be Jesus and his Word.  The power of God's Word is going to affect and change their lives. They have been through so much more than I can ever imagine, so no fancy words are going to do, just telling them about God's Word and praying that it will change their hearts when they read it. That was for sure my light bulb moment of the trip.

Our last week of ministry was a challenge as well, but in a different way. In our time in Uganda we had last power several times in our three previous hotels, but in Busolewai for two and a half days straight we had lost power and water. It really makes you appreciate the simple things in life a lot more, I know our interns do now. Our last weekend in Uganda I got to have a unique experience. We got to go to the Nile River and I was able to water baptize two people, one girl from our team and one girl that was a national working in Uganda. Most definitely a highlight of the trip!   

    All of your prayers means more to me than I can express. They definitely got 

my team and myself through those very difficult times, please do not underestimate their effectiveness! Please conti

nue to keep me in your prayers as I travel to Honduras from July 19- August 18th to work with  3 different 10 day teams. To look at my pictures from the trip click on this link  flickr.com/photos/mindytheworldtraveler/sets

     

The Beginning

So here I begin my first blog, obviously not a professional, but i'm going to try my best!

   I leave for the country of Uganda in exactly one week and I don't know exactly how to put into words my feelings. Maybe I could describe it as mixture of amazement, excitement, nervousness and I can't believe this is happening! Truly it still hasn't set in that i'm getting to do what I love and am passionate about, what I know God has truly called me to do.  There is something intoxicating about it, like you're in a dream. Oh I know that there are going to be times when it's really tough and i'm tired and I just want to go home to all that is familiar, but then i'll remember why i'm doing what i'm doing, to bring hope to the hopeless. Knowing that will make it worth the long flights, unreliable power, irregular internet, eating who knows what that is (better not to ask) and the scorpions in your suitcase. I hope to be able to capture as much as possible all that I see and experience, but no promises. I desire as well that some of you will be feel challenged and prompted to go out and do something that will bring hope to the hopeless, that will allow God to use you for your purpose here on earth. 

*No gauarntee on how frequent my updates will be, no idea when i'll have interenet!!