London and Nepal

I was hoping to be a little more consistent with the blog while on outreach, but it has been a little crazy. 

We finished our two weeks in London on January 14th. We partnered with a ministry from YWAM Perth, Australia called Megacities. Each year, Megacities bombards a city with a population of a million or more with the love of God. We did street evangelism, worked with a homeless ministry, and shared the gospel with many different schools. It was quite an adventure as we crammed 15 people into a small bungalow. Let's just say we all got really close during the two weeks. Liam had a bit of jet lag for the first few nights, but eventually he adjusted well...just in time for another 6 hour time difference of course.

     We arrived in Kathmandu, Nepal on the 14th after a long day of flying. Most of the team experienced a bit of culture shock as we stepped outside the airport to find the busy city awaiting us. Quite a difference from London  for sure. We have been joining a few different ministries while here including working with kids in the slums, setting up a small health clinic for the families of the slums, helping at an HIV/AIDS house, but we have spent a majority of our time working with a children's welfare home run by a Hindu couple. Each day we had the chance to teach them english, color, play soccer, teach them songs, and just love on them. Each day we acted out different Bible stories for the kids and the couple. The husband and wife were devout Hindus but found our stories very intriguing. They would stop what they were doing and join the kids during the Bible stories. What we did there was simple, but by the end of our time there we had shared the gospel. We prayed for each one of them and all of them came to know the Lord including the couple! God is so faithful!

     This week had been a bit rougher for Matt and I. We both have been pretty sick and Liam has not slept well at night for about a week. We are feeling a bit sleep deprived and could really use your prayers. The team is doing well and we are looking forward to seeing what else the Lord has in store for us and for this amazing country! I don't have time to put any pictures up yet, but I will hopefully have the chance soon! Thanks for all your support and prayers!

Off to London!

12/30

We have officially left for outreach! We packed up our bags and headed to the airport this morning. We have successfully made it to our first connection in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Liam did great on his first plane ride. I was so worried about how he would do, but God’s grace was covering us all! He fell asleep about 30 seconds before takeoff and slept for the first half! We are currently sitting in the airport for our 5 1/2 hour layover and then we are off to London! We will be spending 10 days in London bombarding the city with intercession and evangelism! Then we will be leaving for Kathmandu, Nepal on the 11th where we will stay for a month and a half. I will try to update our blog as the internet allows. We covet your prayers as Matt and I lead 15 DTS students on this outreach. We are so excited for what’s ahead and can’t wait to share with you what the Lord does during the next two months! Thanks for your support!

1/1/12

Well we are here in London! God has been so good and has been providing already for our team. The airline switched our tickets so that Liam could have a bassinet during the flight. It was such a blessing for Matt and I as Liam slept through the night and we had extra leg room. We are currently recovering from jet lag in a nice Bungalow a church has provided for us. We start ministry tomorrow and I can't wait! Our team has been great and we are all anticipating great things ahead! We'll update again as soon as possible! Love you all!

25 weeks

happy "crawler"

Christmas Eve

"How you doin'"?

Christmas Eve

Outreah games

We are leaving at the end of the month for London! We can't believe it's coming up so quickly! In an attempt to prepare the DTS students for outreach, we as a base put on something we call Outreach Games. Basically we try to replicate a fake outreach to see how prepared they are. We let them know a couple days before to pack as though they were going on outreach and to be ready by 5am. We spend a day doing our best to replicate everything that could potentially happen during our two months overseas to help better prepare the sutdents. We turn our base into another country, complete with an 'airport' and village people from the fictional country of 'Burgerstan". The students have to endure a chaotic foreign airport complete with children begging them for money, crazy 'taxi' drivers', and food unique to the 'culture', and a chance to evangelize to the 'local' people all combined with a general fatigue as we are on the go from sun up until late at night...all without clocks or any way for the students to now what time it is. This year was a success as the students did a great job! Here are a couple of pictures of the students.

A few minutes of downtime

one of the students' children playing with Liam

daddy and Liam

Mommy and Liam

just hangin' out

21-24 weeks

I have been horrible at posting weekly pictures. Here are the last three weeks.

ready for church!

look at that tooth!

One more month!

One month from today we will be climbing aboard a plane and heading off to London! Time is going by quickly as we are nearing the end of lecture phase. The students will be taking a short Christmas break on the 17th and will be returning the 27th.

THANKSGIVING
As a class, we spent Thanksgiving partnering with Manna Ministries again. We got to help set up and serve hundreds of homeless men, woman, and children in Clarksville. Liam loved every minute of it. He was such a trooper and spread lots of joy! Here are some pictures of our DTS and the people served.

some of the people we got to serve

Liam was more interested in eating the camera

halfway...

We have officially passed the halfway mark of the lecture phase! Time is flying by and outreach is just around the corner! The students are doing amazing and have really engaged with the speakers and the ministry times. It has been so rewarding to be a part of this school and to see them growing in their love and understanding of God and love for others. Some of the topics that we have covered in the last couple weeks have been 'Spiritual wholeness/spiritual warfare', and 'Marks of a disciple'. We have about 5 more weeks of lecture left and then it's off to London and Nepal! We have started our fundraising as a class. Each student (and staff) will need to raise around $4,000 to go on outreach. That's a total of about $9,000 for Matt, myself, and Liam to go. We as staff have been praying about what outreach will look like. As of right now we will be slitting up into 2 separate groups. Matt and I have been asked to lead one of the groups. As Matt and I prayed, we also felt like this is what the Lord was saying. We are very excited to embark on this new adventure, but also a little apprehensive. Right now we are holding to the word of the Lord and trusting that He will provide for our family, both physically and financially.  
    


Last week we got Liam's passport. It was so neat to see his little face in the picture and to know that this is the childhood that he is going to have. To travel the world and share the love of Jesus with others, even at 4 months old!
   It's hard to believe that Liam is already 4 1/2 months old. He has become a pro at rolling over and loves to share his sweet smile with the world. Liam is finally feeling back to his normal happy self again after being sick with a nasty cold and ear infection for a week. He is sleeping through the night again and taking two to three consistent naps a day.  

                                            

look at that pitiful face! he was so sick!

cutest monkey ever!

hey there!

daddy and his mini me.