The Past Few Days

The past few days have been eventful. On Monday, Brett and Illir went to the parks and gave out 65 sleeping bags for people! Which is good because it is getting really chilly! I know we all wish we could give them to everyone but sadly we can't :(

Tuesday was a success! We made friendship bracelets that said Jesus Is My Friend and one that said Jesus Is Your Friend. I believe we are going to go back to feeding on tuesdays. But only for families. On friday's it will be for single men, and they will rotate the ticketing

Wednesday we had prayer day and then a clothing give away for the women and children, unfortunately we didn't have enough mens clothes :/ BUT the prayer day was awesome! Susie asked me to help with the music so I picked out 5 songs and she picked out 10 and we played three different times. The prayers were awesome, and it just put me in a great mood the rest of the day. We were able to pray not only for our team but also for the refugees and the refugees who are and are not Christians. We read Psalm 145. GREAT passage :)

Thursday instead of having women's showers it was Oxi (or Ohi) day :) Which if you would like to learn more about Oxi Day click here Basically its a day where they have parades but not NORMAL parades, no sir, Their parades include ALLL the school children marching down the street in their school uniforms. No floats, no balloons, just cold children walking. Sounds like a blast to mee! lol Well unfortunately my Oxi day was sadly interrupted when the stupid bus wouldn't come to our bus stop! We waited an 1 hr and 1/2, had no cell phone with us, and when we were able to get a cell phone to call the people we were going to go hang out with, we wrote down the wrong number. SO with all that said, we missed out on FAJITAS ( :( :( :( ), we missed out on a video about oxi day( WHICH i was excited about btw!), we missed out with fellowship, we came home and instead of Fajitas i had pasta.... AGAIN ugh and watched the Good Shepherd(which is really confusing) and Everybody loves Raymond. Lame Lame Lame day but its ok!




This is what I didn't have :(

And Finally Today FIRDAY. Me and Jessie woke up pretty early and went to a museum, came home and got in our pj's and watched American Sweet Heart, I am about to read, anddd at 5:00 we are going to have our normal routine and go down to the ARC and teach English to a couple girls.

All in all its been a good week, a blessed week, I think my next post will be about the refugees and what kinda environment they are in, what kinda of mindset they are in, what they have to deal with, and what some of their hopes are. I will be posting a video ... That will probably make you cry. Please keep your prayers up, pray for the friends that I have met that are living in the streets, its getting to be about the 50's and raining lately. There is such a need right now and its getting hard for us, because the need isn't our call:/ as much as we would want it to be, It's the Lords. So please pray for our strength, our courage, our mindset, our rest, and our peace of mind. Thank you Supports! I know I don't update this enough, but your prayers and all you have given have helped out so much! From the heart of this little texan I say thanks :)

PS THE RANGERS ARE GOING TO THE WORLD SERIES WOOT! (even though I won't even be watching it anddddd I don't really like baseball, gotta support our team ;) ) have a blessed day !

Even On A Cloudy Day

The littlest things can make you smile. Saturday was just one of those rough days. I haven't really had one yet, but this was beyond lame. But even in the midst of the long rough day, seeing a little baby smile as you bury your head in its belly makes your whole cloudy day turn bright. It's like finding the little blessings in the day. Although Saturday was rough, it just made me realize maybe I am more stressed or haven't fully processed everything I have seen and done since I have been there. But no worries everything is fine and dandy. And I am having a blast. And learning so much through my team mates, the refugees, and the Lord. During my off time I have been in the process of reading two books. I just finished Scouting the Divine (Which I must say was really neat I recommend it!), and now I am in the process of finishing Through Painted deserts. One thing that stood out to me was the question " Are you content where you are in life?" hmmmmm am I content. Truly content... I believe I am, and that's where you have to ponder to yourself. Am I really content or am I just saying that. I know I am content. Even when the stress gets to me, it doesn't me that if I die tomorrow I would have fulfilled everything I wanted in life and still be happy.


Sorry for my random ramblings :) But yes ok everything is going great here. The refugees are really learning alot, and really understanding it. Right now it's sad because it's getting cold, they are being threatened by different cultures, and they are being kicked out of places to sleep. The one thing that kills me is that it seems like no one wants them. I WANT THEM and so does my team, but we can only do so much. Please pray for the safety of the people. And that they might see a glimmer of hope in some way or another. Well I am out! Sorry for the lack of updating :( I feel like a horrible blogger! I will work on that, as well as many other things I will work on. Thank you so much for your prayers and support! I am learning so much and having a blast seeing how God is working through me in different ways :). I think the next blog I am going to show you some of my FAVORITE foods I have been eating :) all are very yummy! have a blessed day all! talk to you very very soon :)

The Eyes into my work :)

Me being sneaky, because I have to be careful with putting these up, I decided to use my phone. So I apologize for the not so good quality. But finally here are pictures from work. These are the people we work with during the week. These people are who we shine love to each time. These people, these children, these families... Give me hope. And if I can make at least one person smile or feel wanted then that is all that matters. But here you are now you see who I am working with :)

The little blessings

Sometimes we look past the little blessings in life. Sometimes we wonder how God will use each one of us, to influence a person, to be apart of A story of some sort. Sometimes, more often than not, God uses our weaknesses as well as our strengths. And what is the most surprising of them all, is when He uses the things you thought he would never use to bless some. You don't know how God will use you. You don't know if He will use you today at all. All you have to do is be willing to allow Him to use you in whatever way, whenever, he wants to use you. It could be scrapping poo out of a turkish toliet(which is gross), it could be helping a little kid stick stickers on a butterfly, it could be teaching english to women or men that have a desire to learn, it could be from a smile, a simple hello, a pat on the shoulder, a simple glass of tea, or a heart to heart conversation about the Lord. He uses each of us in different ways. I have recently been reading this book called "Scouting The Divine", by Margret Feinberg, and it was neat to read about the Bee's. Without each bee the beehive wouldn't survive. Just like the church. Each person brings something unique, something important, something special to the table. Without each person it wouldn't work. It doesn't matter if you are EXTREMELY strong in your walk or just hobbling along God can use you. In powerful ways. Today I was blessed by a 12 year old boy named Nur Muhammad (He goes by Nur) This boy amazed me. His english was superb, he was sweet to everyone, and he was funny. We played Tic-tac-toe and the dots game. And at first I let him win, but he soon caught on and BEAT ME ugh lol. but the coolest part of getting to know him was his background. He came from Afghanistan, took english classes while he was there, his mom and dad are still living there, and he is living in a small apartment with his brothers and sisters/aunt and uncle/ and cousins. The most beautiful sight i saw from this boy was when he drew this cross, in the middle of the cross he wrote in Farsi,"I love God, and God loves everyone" he then decorated it and cute it out to look like a kite. This boy blessed me today, with the simple actions of beating me at games but the simple phrase for the world to see. It's about 11 o'clock and I have had a very long day. Thank you for the prayers and just remember don't be discouraged if you don't feel like you are being used. You will be surprised at who is watching and how you are blessing them. Talk to you guys later BYE

Oh updates updates

I am really bad with updating my blog. I went from writing everyday to writing once a week, sorry followers. ANYWAYS this week has been very eventful! Let's start with Saturday: I helped with English classes, got to meet new people, and found that more people wanted to learn. Sunday I went to a church that only spoke Greek,but had English translations. We also had communion(and that had actual wine which was weird :X) AND THEN I went to the Acropolis! which was VERY cool! [if you are wanting to see pictures from my time here... here are some more http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2018299&id=163500626&saved#!/album.php?aid=2018299&id=163500626 ] I thought you'd enjoy seeing everything! Monday we had a day off and I just rested, edited photos, and looked up Phrases in Farsi!. Tuesday was a great day! WE had the Farsi outreach program, so I helped out in the children's area which was really neat! I also taught english to not only the teenage girls, but I decided I would help the older women that wanted to learn! After that the women had a bible study, and I helped out with the Children's area! 3 Children asked how to become a Christian, and the women finally understand that they can only go one way, that they can go the way of Mohamed or the way of Jesus, now it's time for them to Choose! And I finally got one of the little twins to be open with me! SHE WAVED I was so happy!. Wednesday was Team fellowship and team meeting ( which was fun) Thursday I was exhausted cause I only got 4 hours of sleep BUT it was fun because it was the women's showers. and Today is the day I chose to rest, and also figure out more Farsi words so I can better the english Class. All in all this week was great! I can't believe we have already made it through the first week in October. God had really blessed me with awesome people who watch out for all of us, but also for blessing me with supporters like you. Thank you so much for the prayers! I hope all is well where you are at, and may God bless you the weeks to come! until next time :)

Hmmm....

Sorry I couldn't think up a cool title for this. Friday was amazing. I went to the women's bible study (of only 5 ladies) and we went over Matt. 13. It was so neat to see how the women got it! One woman was talking about worrying, and that was when Matt 6:25-34 came to mind. So I told her after I read this passage, "Do you understand? If the Lord will take care of the birds of the sky, and the flowers of the field surely he will take care of you. So there is nothing to worry about. Yes we all worry, but if you believe that Jesus is God, there will be a peace to you. And in the midst of those troubles and problems you will become so strong. So when you begin to worry, read this, and it will give you hope." It was so neat I got chills. And you know what? She actually got it! She understood! I was so excited! God is really working a number in these women and their families. Then we walked to one of the women's house and had tea. She was so welcoming and kind. It truly was a blessing. Then yesterday we had Tea room . I was able to teach 2 girls English. And then I was able to talk to Arifa. It was neat I was able to talk to her about the Lord, even though it was difficult(because I don't really know how much English she understands), but I am sure I will have other opportunities. ALSO her mother wants to learn english, sooooo I am going to help her too. Who knows what will happen through all this. ALL I know is I wish I knew more Farsi. That would be EXTREMELY helpful. Next time I go to another country That is what I will do. I will get Rosetta Stone and learn the language lol. After the Tea Room I went to My Mentors house and me and my roommates had Couscous, a sorta Greek Salad, Humus, and Ice Cream. Then we played a game called Pounce, which is sorta like Nert's. It was competitive and I lost but it was such a great time. Today I shall be going to a Greek Church, going to the Acropolis, and then clean clean cleaning :) SOOOOOO this has be the past three days for you! Thanks for the continued support I love you all! Have a blessed day!

Hello everyone :)

So yesterday was really neat! What happens once a week the women and children have a shower, and another day the men have showers. Yesterday the women got to shower! It was a really neat experience. Each family took turns in the shower, the children had crafts, and had lunch. But what really made me happy was getting to play some songs for them. I sang "Before The Kind" and "This is the day (in farsi). I have been in the mood to play the guitar ever since I got here, which is weird cause I never really was in the mood back home. Welllll I met this little girl name Sojeya. She was 12 and absolutely a darling. She asked if I could teach her how to play the guitar, and you know what? I did! Then when we went in the other room to do crafts, She made me a paper flower!!! AND then taught me how to make them!



She was a darling! But I thought to myself, it was soo neat to see that not only could I teach someone something new, but they could teach me something as well. Soo neat.

Well today I will be going to my mentors bible study, and after that, I will be heading to Attiki to visit the Refugees in their homes. This will be such an amazing experience. I must say these women are the sweetest people I've ever met. So happy about life, in the midst of such struggles. I just pray that I can learn something, be humbled, and truly broken in the midst of helping them, that I could learn something so beautiful from these wonderful people. Thank you all for your support and prayers! It's such a blessing! May God bless you on your day today :) talk to you soon :)