Hello, everyone! I am so excited to tell y'all about my time here in Athens, so far! My time in Greece has been far from what I had expected. I had pictured us arriving and jumping into working with the refugees here right away. I was so ready to get started, but when we arrived we were informed that many of our connections had fallen through. I felt very disappointed and confused. If we didn't have connections, what were we going to do? I have quickly realized that God's plan for my time in Greece is way cooler and way broader than I had originally expected. Since being here, God has randomly (and when I say randomly, I mean so random that only God Himself could have done it!) connected us with different ministries, churches and organizations that serve both refugees and the Greeks. At first, I had ignorantly thought that the Greek people didn't have a great amount of need. I was totally blindsided by the reality of the struggles that they are going through. With the financial crisis Greece is going through 1/4 of the people here are unemployed, and the result is disappointment, depression and a lack of purpose. One Greek woman that we spoke to said, "It's great that you are coming to help the refugees, but while you are here don't forget about us. Our people need help. They are depressed, hopeless and need encouragement." That came as an overwhelming reality check for me. All of that being said, I have found that God is using my team to reach both the refugees and the people that have taken them in. The streets of Greece! Since being here, we have been working with the organization that is hosting us, Mercy Ministries. They focus on reaching the homeless, drug addicts and refugees. They feed and clothe them while also offering church services where they are spiritually fed, followed by a hot meal. We have also worked with City Plaza, a hotel that has been transformed into a place for refugees to live in for free once they make it out of the refugee camps. We have also recently partnered with an international church that also works with the refugees. Church service at the International Church I have met so many incredible people here, but two of my favorites that I was able to spend a day with are Twana and Kurdos, both Kurdish boys from Iraq. They met two years ago in a refugee camp, Camp Karatape, and have been close as brothers ever since. Twana in the middle and Kurdos on the right Twana
Twana is seventeen. He came to Athens 2 years ago after serving in the military fighting ISIS. He came to volunteer at refugee camps, to work and to go to school. He works as a translator because he knows 5 different languages, Farsi, English, Arabic, Kurdish and some Greek (he carries around a notebook everywhere he goes to write down and study new phrases and words). He lives in Athens with his brother, but he hasn't seen the rest of his family since he was fifteen. He said that he is very happy living in Athens because it has many opportunities for him, the people are nice and the living conditions for him are good. Kurdos Kurdos is sixteen. He and his family fled Iraq after ISIS killed his mother. Since then, his father remarried, and he lives with his father and stepmother in Athens. He is very grateful to be in Europe where it is safe. He said in Iraq his family never knew when something bad might happen, but here he knows they are safe. He wants to move to Germany, in hopes of a better life. Meeting these two boys was incredibly eye-opening. I was able to spend the day with them, sharing stories and being introduced to a new side of Athens. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to connect with the people here, both native and foreign, and I am so excited to continue working with these incredible people! Now, our team has split. 11 people have gone to the island of Lesvos to work at the refugee camp, Camp Moriah. Originally, we were all going to go there, but the winter conditions were so bad there that people died. Because of this, they moved all of the women and children to different camps. Because there are only men there and we have so many women (culturally, men and women do not work well together), we were asked to send all of our guys and only a few girls there. The rest of us girls will remain in Athens to continue working with the ministries here.
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Hello, again, from Tyler, TX! I am so thrilled to be writing you again from Youth With a Mission's Tyler base! This is my second week of being back in classes. My current school, School of Evangelism (SOE), is going incredibly, and I have been loving every minute of being back here! There's just something about this place that brings me so much peace and so much joy. I love being in a place where I am totally confident that God has led me. Being in His perfect will is such a fulfilling thing. I have such high hopes for this current chapter of my life, and I know that God is going to be using this time to teach me so much. My school consists of 27 students, which is a LOT more than I had originally expected. We have 14 students from our previous Discipleship Training School and 13 new students. It is a perfect balance of refreshing newness and familiarity. Something that I absolutely love about this group is the amazing mix of nationalities we have. In just our group of 27, we have students from all over the U.S. (including Mississippi, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Michigan, Minnesota and several others), from South Africa, from Mexico, from India, from South Korea, from Indonesia and from Mauritania. Every day I get to hear different languages, hear about different cultures and connect with people who have totally different experiences than me. It's absolutely thrilling! My 5 roommates are absolutely incredible. I cannot describe how blessed I am. From left to right: Kala (Mauritania), Allison (south Texas), Bekah (Pennsylvania), Whitney (New Mexico) and Esther (Texas). Each of these women have incredible giftings and callings on their lives. I'm so excited to be able to grow alongside them. God has given me such a solid support group! Being silly with the roomies. Class fun! With my work duty partners, Bethany and Kris! (All of the students have a duty that they are assigned to during the lecture phase. We do our work duty for two hours Monday-Friday and an extra work duty on the weekend.) There's a bit of an update on how everything is going, so far! I do have a couple of prayer requests that you could be lifting up, though. 1. That God would use this time to grow my faith 2. For boldness (this one is a particularly important one to me) 3. For a hunger to know God more but also a continued contentedness for being where God has placed me for the next 5 months 4. For God to financially provide for the rest of my tuition and outreach costs for my School of Evangelism. Thank you all SO much for your support, your prayers and your love. I am so grateful to have so many amazing people in my life supporting me. I love you all! Until next time, Olivia Hello, everyone! I have returned from a little break from posting on here. I have been back in DFW, waiting for my next school, School of Evangelism, to begin . After what seemed like a very long break, I am 3 days away from returning to YWAM! I am so unbelievably excited to go back, to be reunited with my friends, to learn more about God and to reach out to people who need His love so desperately! My break was very welcomed, as outreach was very fast-paced, high-energy and really took a lot out of me. I have spent the last 2 months working when I could, visiting my supporting churches, supporters and the Wesley Foundation, having my wisdom teeth removed (that was an interesting experience...) and spending time with my family and friends. Here are some of the highlights from my time off! My cousin, Kieran, got married! Celebrating Thanksgiving Celebrating Christmas cheer with my family ;) Getting our family portraits done by my amazingly talented friend, Nat Chittamai Christmas day with the family Celebrating New Year's with my best friend and old college roommate, Kelsey Reuniting with many precious friends I truly am so grateful for the time I've had back home. It was so refreshing and was exactly what I needed, but I am very ready to go back to YWAM, now. I'm ready to have a schedule again, to have set responsibilities, to learn, to work and to have something to put effort towards. As fun as this break was, I had very little of that. I'm ready for a challenge, and if SOE (School of Evangelism) is anything like DTS (Discipleship Training School) there will be LOTS of challenges that, hopefully, will result in spiritual growth. Thank you for keeping up with me as I continue my journey! God bless! -Olivia Hello, friends and family! I know it’s been a few weeks since I’ve updated y’all on what’s going on. As usual, I’ve been very busy. I will use this blog entry to tell y'all about my last week in Ecuador and about what I'm hoping to do next! My last week in Manta, which was also my last week in Ecuador, was a great way to end outreach. We worked with a different church than we had the previous week, and the pastor and his family were generous enough to let us stay at his church while we worked with them. Out of all of the weeks, it was most certainly the calmest. My whole team definitely appreciated a low-key week since the previous six weeks of outreach in both Louisiana and Ecuador had really taken a lot out of us. Even though it was low-key we still were able to do a lot of really neat things. We did lots of children evangelism. We went to several schools and put on our program for them. Afterwards, we were able to play with them and had a great time. We also were able to go visit the Manta earthquake victims at a place called Ground Zero. The people there had lost everything and were living in shacks. We put on a program for the kids, talked and prayed with the adults and gave out different necessities such as food and mosquito nets. One of the men there was incredibly generous and wanted to cook for us the following night. He insisted that we come the next night over and over. We were absolutely overwhelmed by his generosity. Despite losing everything he wanted to be able to bless us back. The following night, we all went out to his place and ate a delicious meal of tuna, rice and plantains. It was so inspiring and, honestly, convicting to me. If someone with so little was willing to give so much, how much more should I be willing to give to others around me? It has definitely served as a personal challenge since. One of my favorite things that I had the opportunity to do that week was leading an English class. I had to laugh at the irony of it all because I’ve told so many people that I have no desire to teach English unless it was internationally or God told me to do so. When my leaders told me that I would be one of the two people who would be in charge of TESOL (Teaching English as a Second Language) I was not exactly overjoyed, but God proved to me that although I really have no idea what I am doing in certain situations He is able to guide me in my weaknesses. With His help the lessons went quite successfully. The first day was rather interesting, though, because we had to prepare a lesson for an unknown amount of people when we ALSO didn’t know their age ranges or their previous English knowledge. It was quite the swing in the dark, but after the first 30 minutes we figured out that it was best to split off into groups and teach each group separately. I worked with the children of the pastor whose church we were staying at. Their names were Tiffany (7) and Caleb (5), and I absolutely fell in LOVE with them! They were such well-behaved and smart kiddos. Caleb picked up EVERYTHING I taught him. It was incredible! We taught them for three days. With Tiffany and Caleb All in all, our last week was really incredible. My amazing host parents from the previous week, Francisco and Maria, came to visit us on the night that we were leaving to go back to the capital city (where the airport is located). Seeing them again was so amazing and such a blessing. It was also made for a very tear-filled goodbye, which was something I was getting used to as we relocated each week. Me and Tracy with Francisco and Maria Reflecting back on my time in Ecuador, it’s amazing to think about everything that has happened. My five weeks in Ecuador were five of the most challenging weeks of my entire life but also five of the most rewarding. During my time there, I witnessed God’s faithfulness in both my life and in the lives of the people we worked with. When I felt like I didn’t have the strength to go on, God always sustained and encouraged me. I was able to hear the incredible testimonies of so many amazing people there- of how God literally worked miracles in their lives and helped them build orphanages, nonprofit foundations and churches. Hearing their incredible stories helped build my own faith. I’m so grateful to God for the work He did in my life there and for Him allowing me to work with so many incredible people. I’m ALSO so grateful to all the people who helped me through my Discipleship Training School both financially and through prayers. My DTS was absolutely life changing. I have an entire new understanding of what having a relationship with God really looks like. Although I'm very sad about leaving Discipleship Training School behind and the amazing people I got to know during it, I am so excited to continue pursuing God's calling on my life. I know that as long as I follow where He is leading great things are ahead. DTS Graduation Day As for my next steps, if God wills it, I hope to continue my missions training in the next YWAM school, School of Evangelism. This will start on January 8th. My desire is to continue to allow God to be working in my life the way he has in the last 6 months. I have never experienced as much growth in my relationship with Him as well as in my ability to allow Him to work in my life, making me a kinder, more patient and more loving person. Growing closer to God is the most important thing to me, and I see the most growth available in continuing my missions training. Please join me in prayer as I continue on this journey and search for God’s will in my next steps. Until next time, Olivia Hello, everyone! I am so sorry that it has taken me so long to give y'all an update. I have had very limited wifi, so far, so I haven't had the chance to write on here. Let me update y'all. I am currently in Manta, which is the beach. I have been in three cities since I last wrote. Leaving Ambato behind was extremely difficult. I had connected with the kids so much, and neither the kids nor I wanted us to leave. We said goodbye the night before we left, and it was truly one of the most tear-filled nights I have ever experienced. It was truly heart-wrenching saying goodbye. Those kids touched my heart in a way that I have truly never experienced before. I know, without a doubt in my mind, that I will never forget them or the time I spent with them. Being in Puyo was absolutely incredible, though, which somewhat makes up for the heartache of leaving Ambato. We stayed at a church in the city, and the pastor, Pastor Roberto and his family were SO gracious to us. Pastor Roberto set up a lot of the work we did, which was a lot of children's evangelism. We worked three days at an orphanage, which was really fun. We did skits for them, did crafts with them, taught them Bible lessons and played with them. We also had the opportunity to go spend a day at a school in the city as well as a school in the jungle. The school in the city was an absolute blast. There were so many kids there, and they swarmed us. Sometimes, it was a little frightening, I'm not going to lie. Some of us were literally pulled to the ground by 10 kids jumping on us at the same time while others were being chased by a gleeful mob of at least 30 kids. It was lots of fun, though, and the kids just wanted to play and be loved. Our team putting on a skit for the kids. The school in the jungle was absolutely amazing. We were the first outside group to ever come visit. Their building was nice because the government built it, but the kids who go there are so poor that they don't even eat lunch most of the time. While we were there, we got to serve them lunch and gave them donated clothing. We also did clown skits for them, did crafts with them and taught them a Bible lesson. At eleven, all of us, including the students, went swimming in a river in the jungle. That was OUT of this world awesome. The current was really strong, but the kids were so good at swimming. It was amazing. We would swim out to giant rocks in the middle of the river, jump off them and let the rapids carry us down to a smoother part of the river. It was an absolute BLAST!! There were also SO many GORGEOUS butterflies flying all around us- so many different colors and incredible patterns, including the vibrant blue ones that live in the jungles. On a bridge over the river! That day was absolutely amazing. Saturday was our free day, and it was one of my very favorite days. We went for a canoe ride in a branch of the Amazon River. IThere were lots of wild monkeys in the town, and I got to feed them! I ALSO did something totally crazy. I ate a giant Amazonian grub! It was an experience I will never forget, to say the least! Later that night, we went back to Puyo and had a church service from 7:30 until 2 in the morning... it was definitely an experience, to say the least. Haha. It was awesome to spend that time with Pastor Roberto's church. The next day, we had a church service, and we and some of the congregation went swimming at a GORGEOUS river in the jungle. It was absolutely breathtaking, and I had a blast getting to know the people. They are all so kind and so fun. We had such a blast! The next day, we headed to Quito, the capital city, where we were last week. We worked with an organization, Niños Con Un Destina, that helps kids who are illegally working underage get out of that situation and into school. The organization is absolutely amazing, and incredible work is being done there. The staff is such a hardworking group of people with hearts after God. Face painting was quite the hit, there! Some curious kiddos helping me play guitar. ;) Our AMAZINGLY gracious host, Erika, who let all eleven of us stay in her apartment for the week. She guided us around Quito while we stayed there, too. It was such an incredible opportunity to work with the foundation, but, honestly, last week really pushed me to my limits in many ways. The children at the foundation were very troubled and quite closed off until the very end, when we had to leave. Many of the people in Quito were cold and closed off, too, outside of the people who hosted us and the staff we worked with. I found that really difficult, since I'm such a people-person. I also ended up getting really sick on the last day, which was a free day. I stayed in bed all day because I was too weak to be walking around the city all day. As difficult as it was, though, I know that God used that week to test me and mentally strengthen me. My sick day was also almost a blessing in disguise because I was able to get a lot of mental rest, which I really needed. Now, we are in Manta! We traveled 7 hours by bus to get here, but I couldn't be more thrilled. God seriously has blessed me so much. We are staying at a bunch of host homes with two people per house. My host parents, Francisco and Maria are the kindest and most gracious people EVER. Their home is amazing. We each have a bed, which is glorious since there have been quite a few nights of sleeping on floors. They have the warmest shower I have been had even since before Louisiana, and THEY HAVE WIFI (WOOHOO!!)!! To top it all off, Manta is a costal town, and the beach is my favorite place in the whole world. I am thrilled to be here. We are partnering with another young missions group from Ecuador. We have done prayer together, evangelism and we eat with them for every meal. It has been so wonderful getting to know them! On our own, we are working with a school about 20 minutes away. Us with some of the students after we had an cake icing war. Haha. So much about this place has been such a blessing, but I am sick again, which is not fun. I lost my voice worse than I ever have before, so if y'all would be willing to pray for a quick recovery for me so that I could pour into these people here with everything I would really appreciate it. Thank you for taking time to read my update! I know it was a lot, but I haven't had the chance to update y'all. Until next time, Olivia Hello, friends and family! It blows my mind how quickly time has been flying. I can't believe that I am already in Ecuador! I will catch you up a little bit on our time in Louisiana, first, since I ended up not having time to post again during my time there. We went to Baton Rouge for three days and were able to do flood relief in quite a few houses. We mostly gutted houses, but we were able to do some work in some homes that had already been gutted. Honestly, it was so heartbreaking. So much of the area was destroyed. Hundreds of homes and businesses had all of their destroyed furniture, insulation, wood, belongings, etc... in a pile outside of their houses. The first house I worked in was flooded up to the rafters. Mold was growing all the way up to the ceiling. Mud and mold covered the floors, and it smelled absolutely terrible. We tore up the floors, carpets, took out the wood doorways, fireplace, and everything else that needed to be taken out. It was so heartbreaking, but it was amazing being able to give those people some hope and encouragement. After Baton Rouge, we went back to the N.O. base and continued working with the people in that city. We worked with the kids in the projects more and did several days' work at a homeless shelter. We put on a service for them, and I led worship with the cahone player on my Ecuador team, Jonathan. Louisiana was absolutely amazing, and it was great for getting into outreach mindset. I was able to connect with so many amazing people. I wish I had the time to go deeper into all of the stories I have and the people I encountered. There were so many amazing people that I got to meet. I wish so much that I could be a part of their lives for longer than two weeks. That has probably been the most difficult part of all of this, so far. I become so attached to the people that I meet. Then, I have to leave and hope that they were able to see God in me and can grow in their own faith and walks with Him. Exploring a Louisiana swamp! Now, I am officially in Ecuador! We have spent the last week in Ambato, staying at a Mission for orphans and children whose parents aren't around or can't afford to keep them. At the entrance of the mission! There are about 50 kids living at the mission, and I have absolutely FALLEN IN LOVE with them. They are so sweet and intelligent, and I love being able to play with them and pour into their lives. During the day, we do labor like gardening and construction work, and when the kids return from school we spend time with them playing games, teaching them English and doing fun stuff like playing music on my guitar with them and painting the girls' nails. We got to put on a church service for them, too, which was really fun. Me with some of my sweet, new friends, Liliana, Natali and Marlene! We let the girls paint our nails. Josh even let one of the girls paint his pinky. The girls LOVED it! Doing face painting on the kids! Me with 6 of the 12 girls in my group. We went on a hike with some of the girls to a volcanic lake near the orphanage! Group photo! Two of my favorite girls, Liliana and Natali. It has been awesome to see how much my Spanish has come back since studying abroad in Costa Rica three years ago. I still have forgotten so much, but I remember a lot more than I realized. It has been SO helpful as I try to communicate with the kids. We are leaving tomorrow for Puyo, which is in the Amazon. We will be working with another orphanage for three days and will be doing other various things that need to be done there. I will try to post as often as I am able to! The posts may be lengthy because of everything that is going on, but I hope y'all enjoy hearing about how God is working here! Thank y'all so much for taking the time to read this and keep up with me! God bless! -Olivia Hello, everyone! We made it to New Orleans and have been here since Friday! We are staying at the New Orleans YWAM base. From the base you can see the buildings of downtown N.O., and the Mississippi River is only a three minute walk away! Being here has been awesome. Most of the people on staff are in their 20's, and they are SO much fun to work with!! Being in New Orleans has been absolutely incredible, so far!! We had the opportunity to play with a bunch of kids in the projects yesterday. There were so many sweet, intelligent, talented and fun children there. I absolutely fell in love with the kids, especially a little girl named Jackion. She is so intelligent, and she loves drawing and talking about science. Her desire to learn and her kindness made me totally fall in love with her. We get to go play with the kids several more times while we are here, and I am so excited to do it again!! Today, we did a church service for kids in a juvenile detention center. I led worship with one of the other DTS students, Doran. We did our skit that we have been working on, and several people on our team gave their testimony. At the end, we were able to pray with the kids there. As we were praying for the girls, they started bawling and opening their hearts up to us. It was so incredible. We couldn't help but cry ourselves! Being here has been so eye opening. It's amazing how well people respond and how they open up when you just make yourself available to them and show them that you care. Me and Tracy in front of the Mississippi River! Our team! Some of the sights in the French Quarter! Please pray that our team would continue reaching people in the ways that they need to be reached and that we would successfully show God's heart for them during our time here. Until next time, Olivia Today, I had the opportunity to do something very special. Our class was given the option to have first time baptisms and rededication baptisms. When I was five years old, I was baptized in a spring outside of the Dead Sea in Jordan, but, as many of you know, I have had several years where I made many terrible decisions and blatantly turned my back on God. Thankfully, through the guidance I found at the Wesley Foundation and YWAM I have recently chosen to live a life fully dedicated to God. I knew that this was my opportunity to make a public declaration of the rededication of my life to God. I am so excited to say that from this day on I will live my life whole-heartedly for God and listen to His guidance. God fulfills me in a way that nothing has ever done before. I am so excited to live the life that He has planned for me. Today, I let my old self die, and I choose to live for God. I choose to live according to His Word, to strive with everything in me to keep loving and encouraging the people I encounter and to continue diving into my relationship with God. Kim Kaufman, my school leader, and Roy Sandiford, a YWAM staff member and leader, helped lead my rededication baptism. The group of us that were baptized!
Hello, dear friends and family! Since I last wrote, life has been a complete whirlwind! I never expected for things to get so busy, but the busyness has managed to keep me far from boredom and any sort of laziness! Let me give you a quick recap of the last few weeks! During Ministry Practices Week, I was asked to share some of my thoughts and input with YWAM Tyler's staff and students. That week's teachers, Calvin and Carol Conkey, own a business, Create International, that uses technology to make ministering to other nations more effective. My sister, Elise, came to visit for a weekend. It was SO amazing having her here, and I loved getting to share my YWAM experience with her. My amazingly talented friend, Shalom, even did a sister photo shoot for us! Here's one of my favorite pictures from the last few weeks! God's artwork is glorious! I was able to go home over the Labor Day weekend. My brother, Andre, who recently got his learner's permit, drove me for the very first time! It was a proud sister moment! (Don't worry... He was at a stop sign when I took the picture! ;) ) This weekend, my dad came to visit me on base! It was so fun getting to spend quality time with him and hear his stories about when he did his DTS at the same base 30 years ago! My dad also took me and my roommates out to lunch in Mineola! It was a fun day out with my dad and the girls! There's a quick recap for you! We are now LESS than a week away from outreach (we leave on the 16th!), which I can’t even fathom, right now! We will be starting off our outreach with two weeks in Louisiana. Because of the recent flooding there, Louisiana is in desperate need for volunteers to help with the flood damage. I am so excited to get to be a part of that group! We will be mucking out homes that have been flooded and doing other work that is needed. We will also be working with kids in a detention home and putting on a Vacation Bible School for kids in poorer areas. I am so excited to reach out to these people! After our two weeks there, we will head back to YWAM Tyler for two days, and, then, we are off to Ecuador on October 2nd! I almost feel dizzy when I think about how soon all of this is coming! The lecture phase has ABSOLUTELY. FLOWN. BY. I can’t believe how much learning we packed into 3 months, and I can’t believe the drastic change that I have seen in my life. When I think back to the person that I was before I came here, I barely feel like I am that same girl. My confidence in my faith has simply exploded since coming here, and God has been molding me into someone that is so much closer to where I want to be. He has been working out my weaknesses and character flaws. It has NOT been a painless experience, but with the pain have come some amazing results. One example is that I have always struggled with being patient- in just about every way. Living in a dorm full of girls with 3 roommates and little to no alone time has been a struggle, I will admit. There have been times when I thought that I was going to lose my mind. There have been times when all I wanted to do was yell at the top of my lungs and spend a week in solitary confinement. There have been times when I was on the brink of bawling my eyes out for no reason other than being surrounded by people for so long, but God has been so faithful and has used this time to work on refining my patience. He has been building me in this area of self-control, reminding me to extend grace to those around me. Of course, I still have a long road ahead of me, but I’ve seen personal victories in this area that, truly, would have never happened if I hadn’t have been put in this situation. I'm so grateful for this time of classroom learning, but I am SO ready to get out into the world to start helping and ministering to the people! Please continue praying for my growth in God as I go into this next phase, but also pray that God would use our teams to really pour blessings, truth and God's love into the lives of the people we meet. Also, please pray specifically for unity in our teams and that God would give us patience and grace towards each other during outreach! Thank y'all so much for reading! Until next time, Olivia Hello, dear friends and family! This month has been INSANELY busy, which is why I haven't gotten around to updating y'all, yet! We have had several very intense weeks full of learning, full of God's freedom and full of ministry preparation for our outreach. I have some VERY exciting news, though! I found out today that all of my money for my outreach has officially been raised!! I want to thank everyone who helped me raise this money from the bottom of my heart. Every dollar will be going towards reaching lost and hopeless people who need to hear the truth about God's redeeming love. Thank you SO much for partnering with me in this ministry. My excitement is growing more and more with each week. Last weekend, I had the amazing privilege of seeing my best friend, Miss Kelsey McCulloch, become Mrs. Kelsey Campbell. It was SUCH a BEAUTIFUL weekend filled with so many wonderful memories. Kelsey was STUNNING in her gorgeous dress, and the whole reception was breathtaking. I was one of the bridesmaids, so I got to spend a lot of time with her before the wedding which was so nice. I hadn't seen her since I started my DTS, so it really blessed me. Photo credit- Abbi Hearne Photography The wedding party! I was, also, able to see a very large group from my Tarleton Wesley Foundation family! It was SUCH a blessing to be reunited with them! The wedding was absolutely dreamy, and being back with everyone felt almost like a dream itself. It felt strange to be off of the base and with my college friends again, but it absolutely blessed my soul in a way that I can't describe. After returning from Austin, I had to face the busiest week of the entire DTS. Along with classes, my daily work duty and reading for classes, we were working on a powerful skit called Clincher that we will be performing on outreach. I was pretty much busy from 6:30 in the morning until 10 at night. The skit shows the intense struggles of a girl as she is brought down by pride, lust, drugs and depression. Eventually, (after we toss the lead girl around QUITE a bit) Jesus steps in, takes all of her sins, fights satan (suicide) in an epic battle, is crucified, rises from the dead and gives the girl freedom. If you want to see a practice version of it, I am tagged in it on Facebook, so you can find it on my profile wall! The skit is so powerful that I get chills the whole time we are in practice! I am SO excited to bring it to the people of Ecuador to show them what Jesus can do for them and so desperately wants to do for them!
Next week, we will continue with classes and ministry prep. We will be focusing on preparing a VBS (Vacation Bible School) for children in Ecuador. I have never worked a VBS before, so I am very excited to be able to pour into the lives of impoverished children who wouldn't normally get the chance to do something like this! God has been so faithful to me during this time. I hope that through my blog you are able to see the changes that He is making in my life and how He can do the same thing for you! I pray that everyone who reads this will be touched by Him and that y'all will have a hunger to know Him on a much deeper level. If you have any questions or want to talk to me personally about anything feel free to email me at [email protected]! I would love to hear from you! :) I love y'all so much! Until next time, Olivia |
AuthorOlivia DeLaney is a recent college graduate that blogs about her transition into adulthood and the adventures along the way. Archives
January 2017
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