Ok, so I figured it was about time that I write a post ending my DTS experience.
DTS officially ended February 19, 2010. We graduated that evening with a wonderful ceremony that we put together for family and friends that were able to come. The evening was filled with laughter, singing, dancing, memories, testimonies, tears, and certificates. I can't believe it's actually done. During the 6 months there I thought that Feb. 19 would never come. The night ended with tears of joy and tears of knowing that the next few days would be extremely hard. Starting that next morning students were going to be leaving to go home or start their travel around Australia. I left Sunday February 21, 2010 at 3:35pm. Knowing the day would be really hard I tried to prepare myself for all the emotions I knew would come flooding in but I wasn't nearly as prepared as I could ever be. After a morning of exchanging photos and uploads and downloads I got all my stuff in the van and turned around to say all my g'byes to those who weren't coming to the airport with me. Some were easier than others and I left the hardest ones for when I was at the airport. I climbed into the van with Jennelle, Shanna, Eilidh, Roman (who was also leaving for home), Gerry, and Sam who was driving and we headed on the 40 minute trek to the airport.
Once we arrived we unloaded our bags and looked at each other for a second and then the flood came. I couldn't stop the tears as they rolled down my face as I hugged and said bye to my closest friends. When I was able to get my barrings I finally decided that if we didn't go...I would never be able to. So..with that Roman and I grabbed our stuff, said our last byes and walked through the sliding glass doors into the terminal. We were able to get checked in without having to stand in the dreadfully long line and got through customs without a problem. We grabbed some lunch and headed to our gates. With extra security going back to the U.S. we hit our third or fourth check point. Once through we said yet another bye to each other and I boarded my plane.
The flight was 12 hours and 40min and arrived in LA about 40 minutes early...which turned out to be fine - I was able to collect myself, get my things, go through immigration and customs before seeing Nathan and my parents. They finally arrived and the tears rolled yet again. Seeing my mom, step-dad, dad, and then Nathan to top it all off was truly spectacular. We loaded up the car, stopped of for some coffee, had lunch in Ventura and the Urban Cafe and then headed to the beach. ....and from there ...well...that's another post!
Thank you again for all the support and prayers that I know were being sent my way. Thank you for reading this, for chatting me when you could. Thank you thank you thank you.
Cheers,
Sarah
Monday, March 29, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Part 2 - more photos
Riding in the back of a truck on the highway on the way to Cape Town
Saying hello to the kids - Chloe daughter of School leader
A fun night!
Eating ice cream while flying over Antartica
Antartica!
Typical birthday celebration with our group, flour and icing fights
Cow stomach and hoof soup. We had to eat it. It was rough.
Cutting potatoes for 800 kids on Christmas dayThere's more...
3 days and counting
2 of my creations - face painting during 'VBS' week
Two of my girls - Amy and Lamika
Watch out! ;)
We are at the 3 oceans aquarium
setting up the Christmas trees
feeding program with the homelessIt's crunch time people. 3 days until I leave my wonderful family and friends here. So with that I figured I would post a few photos of my last 3 months. Please keep in mind I have heaps and it takes a while to upload them onto here so I will be posting a few at a time.
Friday, February 12, 2010
9 days and counting!
Hey everyone,
We are back at the base. It was a long trip but better than our trip from Tingha to Fingal...that trip the van lost a fan belt and then from Fingal home the trailer on the same van got a flat tire... luckily I wasn't in that van at any point. Fingla/Tweed Heads was good, we did bible distribution, went to a bible study group where we played Pictionary and my group came in second but it was sooooo close...our group almost had it....sigh. It was a good game. It rained the whole time! and I mean rained. At one point it was for 15 hours straight. The last night we had a student night while the leaders had their time together and we decided that since we were leaving at 4:30am the next morning we would pull an all-nighter...well it seemed like a good idea until nature decided they wanted to hang out too. A bird flew in the building, three huge spiders (the size of my palm) decided to show themselves, a moth kept coming in after I would put it outside, and a caterpillar was inching along my leader's pillow. An eventful night. Back at the base we are getting back into our routine with morning work duties and starting debrief. We are still trying to handle the head lice situation, praise the Lord I haven't gotten it and I keep praying that's how it stays but now we are also dealing with bed bugs in some of the girls' beds....yuck!
Tomorrow is that start of debrief and then on Sunday evening we are helping with the new DTS opening night. It will be fun and it's exciting to be apart of another DTS beginning...seems like just last month we were arriving and having our opening night. Crazy to think I'm coming home in about a week.
Eilidh is back with us!! Horray! She is much much better, thank you all that prayed! Please pray for me - this chest cold is driving me crazy because it's just a bad cough...no stuffy nose or anything...sigh. And also for my stomach...it's getting better but still not there yet.
I miss you all and can't wait to see you soon! Please continue to keep my team in your prayers!
Cheers,
Sarah
We are back at the base. It was a long trip but better than our trip from Tingha to Fingal...that trip the van lost a fan belt and then from Fingal home the trailer on the same van got a flat tire... luckily I wasn't in that van at any point. Fingla/Tweed Heads was good, we did bible distribution, went to a bible study group where we played Pictionary and my group came in second but it was sooooo close...our group almost had it....sigh. It was a good game. It rained the whole time! and I mean rained. At one point it was for 15 hours straight. The last night we had a student night while the leaders had their time together and we decided that since we were leaving at 4:30am the next morning we would pull an all-nighter...well it seemed like a good idea until nature decided they wanted to hang out too. A bird flew in the building, three huge spiders (the size of my palm) decided to show themselves, a moth kept coming in after I would put it outside, and a caterpillar was inching along my leader's pillow. An eventful night. Back at the base we are getting back into our routine with morning work duties and starting debrief. We are still trying to handle the head lice situation, praise the Lord I haven't gotten it and I keep praying that's how it stays but now we are also dealing with bed bugs in some of the girls' beds....yuck!
Tomorrow is that start of debrief and then on Sunday evening we are helping with the new DTS opening night. It will be fun and it's exciting to be apart of another DTS beginning...seems like just last month we were arriving and having our opening night. Crazy to think I'm coming home in about a week.
Eilidh is back with us!! Horray! She is much much better, thank you all that prayed! Please pray for me - this chest cold is driving me crazy because it's just a bad cough...no stuffy nose or anything...sigh. And also for my stomach...it's getting better but still not there yet.
I miss you all and can't wait to see you soon! Please continue to keep my team in your prayers!
Cheers,
Sarah
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Week 23 of 24
Cheers! I know it's been a while but we haven't had internet....or any technology for that matter. We are in Tweed Heads/Fingal Head for our last week of outreach. It's crazy to think that we have one week left - debrief week when - when we are done here. Last week in Tingha was absolutely incredible. We prayed for a man who lost his leg from the knee down when we was 7 years old and Janine and I felt it grow an inch in our hands!! Such an interesting experience! Then we had a couple days of bible distribution, prayer walks, church services, and I helped lead two people to Christ!
This week is a day by day thing since our coming to this area was unexpected...our real location was cancelled. It has rained constantly since we've been here but the fact that the beach is in our back yard makes everything alright.
I'll update again when we are back at the base.
Please pray for me - I have a cold and my stomach issue is acting up and I am having trouble keeping food down.
Cheers,
Sarah
This week is a day by day thing since our coming to this area was unexpected...our real location was cancelled. It has rained constantly since we've been here but the fact that the beach is in our back yard makes everything alright.
I'll update again when we are back at the base.
Please pray for me - I have a cold and my stomach issue is acting up and I am having trouble keeping food down.
Cheers,
Sarah
Friday, January 22, 2010
I'm back!
Hello all!!
Well, I have safely made it back to Sydney safe and sound. I actually got back Jan.16th but we've been busy since and I didn't have time to update my blog. Please forgive me I haven't forgotten about you.
Outreach was ... I would like to say amazing but that word can only start to describe God. Outreach was wonderful. As I look back it feels like a dream. After Christmas things started to pick up ministry wise. But let's see...New years....
New Years was good, different but good. It is the culture to bring in the new year with worship and prayer and since we were under the covering of the church we were expected to join in. The days leading up to new years our base and school leader, Etienne who is from Cape Town, really wanted to take us into the city and let us experience the south african new years. The day before he learned that the city isn't the same as it was 10 or even 5 years ago and the 'fun time' he experience was that a person who was on the party side...when he was younger. It was too dangerous for us to go so we joined the church and brought in the new year with prayer and worship. It was a good time, even when the speaker would break from english into afrikaans at the climax of the story. ... we learned who to sit next to in order to get a translation. Then January 2 Etienne took us into the city to see the Koons (sorry that's spelled incorrectly) celebrations. This festival dates back to slavery when slaves were only allowed 1 day off all year and that was on Jan. 2. On this day they were free from work and were allowed to go into the city or other cities to enjoy the day and evening. Their typical thing was to dress up, play music, dance, and drink. Now the traditions have been carried on. The youth and adults come together and do parades down the main streets of Cape Town. They are all dressed up with faces painted, marching bands playing, and dancers dancing. The celebration happens for 2 weeks. The first week is the parades which is practice for the following week when they have a competition for the top performing group. They are judged on music, costume, and dancing...much like when I did marching band and drumline...it brought back many memories. Being in the city was fun but I think the best part was actually getting there and getting home. We drove a truck, called a uht (pronounced you-t), and 10 of us sat in the back...no truck top, low sides, and down the freeway, going about 70 mph (sorry mom and dad but it was soooo fun!).
Ministry wise we stayed pretty low-key until the week before we left but we were able to go and clean the park that was just down the street, a couple of days we went out on all 4 sides of the church and planted bible versus all over the city. The week before we left was probably my favorite week. We were able to go into a detention center and spend time with 16 girls, being able to share testimonies, dances, and a short sermon. Afterwards we hung out and made bracelets, hearts, and chatted. We were able to make some really good connections. When we left something was stirring inside me. After I prayed about it I talked to Jennelle and shared the idea of making the girls a Christmas gift. They had shared that on Christmas they had no visitors, no phone calls, no special dinner and here we were on Christmas sharing our favorite memories from home, getting a wonderful dinner from the church and for a few excited about the Christmas presents that are at home waiting to be opened. The idea was to make them each a shirt, with encouragement and bible versus on it. I shared it with the group and we were able to make them and give them to the girls who, almost all, cried. God had opened a door and we were there to step in. The connections with the girls that we made hopefully will last a life time and we hope and are eager to see the impact we made. We also visited an elderly home, an AIDS hospice, townships (basically slums - people who live in a shack made out of trash they find), and went to the Leons Dale flats to say goodbye. The Friday before we left we held a thank you dinner for all those who made our stay so comfortable. For the family that did our laundry, to the church members that made us feel like family. The Monday before we left the church the church members held a goodbye dinner for us at the pastors house and it was really fun. We left the church, Tabernacle of Praise, on Tues and drove to Muizenburg for our remaining days in South Africa. There we were able to see another base, do worship on the beach with the outreach team from England, and only be a 5 minute walk from the beach...that's including traffic. Our flight back was good, there was some turbulence but nothing too bad. I sat next to a 3 year old girl who was hilarious and a little chatter box. She loved to sit next to Bethani and I and it was fun to talk with her.
Since we've been back in Sydney we have tried to get over the jet-lag and these past few days were spent in Canberra (said Cambra) for the 50th Celebration for YWAM. Loren and Darlene Cunningham spoke, the founders of YWAM, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. God really spoke to me...stuff to pray about.
As for the coming weeks, this week we are staying at the base until Friday, doing some outreach with Muslims and relaxing before we head to Tingha for the grand opening of the FIRST youth center started by an indigenous aboriginal in the communities. It's a HUGE thing! The media will be covering it and the 'founders' brother, John who is a student with me, who plays in the National Rugby League will be there. Then that Friday we will be going to another aboriginal community and the last week is up in the air before we are back at the base for our last week which is lecture on debrief - re-entry into our lives.
Should be good.
PLEASE PRAY!
Cheers,
Sarah
Well, I have safely made it back to Sydney safe and sound. I actually got back Jan.16th but we've been busy since and I didn't have time to update my blog. Please forgive me I haven't forgotten about you.
Outreach was ... I would like to say amazing but that word can only start to describe God. Outreach was wonderful. As I look back it feels like a dream. After Christmas things started to pick up ministry wise. But let's see...New years....
New Years was good, different but good. It is the culture to bring in the new year with worship and prayer and since we were under the covering of the church we were expected to join in. The days leading up to new years our base and school leader, Etienne who is from Cape Town, really wanted to take us into the city and let us experience the south african new years. The day before he learned that the city isn't the same as it was 10 or even 5 years ago and the 'fun time' he experience was that a person who was on the party side...when he was younger. It was too dangerous for us to go so we joined the church and brought in the new year with prayer and worship. It was a good time, even when the speaker would break from english into afrikaans at the climax of the story. ... we learned who to sit next to in order to get a translation. Then January 2 Etienne took us into the city to see the Koons (sorry that's spelled incorrectly) celebrations. This festival dates back to slavery when slaves were only allowed 1 day off all year and that was on Jan. 2. On this day they were free from work and were allowed to go into the city or other cities to enjoy the day and evening. Their typical thing was to dress up, play music, dance, and drink. Now the traditions have been carried on. The youth and adults come together and do parades down the main streets of Cape Town. They are all dressed up with faces painted, marching bands playing, and dancers dancing. The celebration happens for 2 weeks. The first week is the parades which is practice for the following week when they have a competition for the top performing group. They are judged on music, costume, and dancing...much like when I did marching band and drumline...it brought back many memories. Being in the city was fun but I think the best part was actually getting there and getting home. We drove a truck, called a uht (pronounced you-t), and 10 of us sat in the back...no truck top, low sides, and down the freeway, going about 70 mph (sorry mom and dad but it was soooo fun!).
Ministry wise we stayed pretty low-key until the week before we left but we were able to go and clean the park that was just down the street, a couple of days we went out on all 4 sides of the church and planted bible versus all over the city. The week before we left was probably my favorite week. We were able to go into a detention center and spend time with 16 girls, being able to share testimonies, dances, and a short sermon. Afterwards we hung out and made bracelets, hearts, and chatted. We were able to make some really good connections. When we left something was stirring inside me. After I prayed about it I talked to Jennelle and shared the idea of making the girls a Christmas gift. They had shared that on Christmas they had no visitors, no phone calls, no special dinner and here we were on Christmas sharing our favorite memories from home, getting a wonderful dinner from the church and for a few excited about the Christmas presents that are at home waiting to be opened. The idea was to make them each a shirt, with encouragement and bible versus on it. I shared it with the group and we were able to make them and give them to the girls who, almost all, cried. God had opened a door and we were there to step in. The connections with the girls that we made hopefully will last a life time and we hope and are eager to see the impact we made. We also visited an elderly home, an AIDS hospice, townships (basically slums - people who live in a shack made out of trash they find), and went to the Leons Dale flats to say goodbye. The Friday before we left we held a thank you dinner for all those who made our stay so comfortable. For the family that did our laundry, to the church members that made us feel like family. The Monday before we left the church the church members held a goodbye dinner for us at the pastors house and it was really fun. We left the church, Tabernacle of Praise, on Tues and drove to Muizenburg for our remaining days in South Africa. There we were able to see another base, do worship on the beach with the outreach team from England, and only be a 5 minute walk from the beach...that's including traffic. Our flight back was good, there was some turbulence but nothing too bad. I sat next to a 3 year old girl who was hilarious and a little chatter box. She loved to sit next to Bethani and I and it was fun to talk with her.
Since we've been back in Sydney we have tried to get over the jet-lag and these past few days were spent in Canberra (said Cambra) for the 50th Celebration for YWAM. Loren and Darlene Cunningham spoke, the founders of YWAM, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. God really spoke to me...stuff to pray about.
As for the coming weeks, this week we are staying at the base until Friday, doing some outreach with Muslims and relaxing before we head to Tingha for the grand opening of the FIRST youth center started by an indigenous aboriginal in the communities. It's a HUGE thing! The media will be covering it and the 'founders' brother, John who is a student with me, who plays in the National Rugby League will be there. Then that Friday we will be going to another aboriginal community and the last week is up in the air before we are back at the base for our last week which is lecture on debrief - re-entry into our lives.
Should be good.
PLEASE PRAY!
Cheers,
Sarah
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Merry Christmas! And Happy New Year!
So a little update!
Life is going well here in Cape Town, I had a wonderful birthday...3 cakes....pizza for dinner, gifts from Thailand! candy... yummy stuff! Christmas was good, got up for prayer, got ready, got picked up to go and peel potatos for 1000 children...played with a little less than 1000 kids, tried to teach them songs, fed them...everyone survived so that is good! Today we get the day off so we came to the cafe!!! Horray for internet! Tomorrow we are doing a church service and that should be fun and interesting.... two of our girls are sick and I'm getting over a cold....so I'll let everyone know how it goes. Hahaha. We are possibly climbing Table Mountain - mainly for the Thailand team- and it will be fun! ...Jennelle, Eilidh and I will be taking the Cable car if it is open and working. But yeah, not too much other than that. You are all in my prayers! Please keep praying!
Sarah
Life is going well here in Cape Town, I had a wonderful birthday...3 cakes....pizza for dinner, gifts from Thailand! candy... yummy stuff! Christmas was good, got up for prayer, got ready, got picked up to go and peel potatos for 1000 children...played with a little less than 1000 kids, tried to teach them songs, fed them...everyone survived so that is good! Today we get the day off so we came to the cafe!!! Horray for internet! Tomorrow we are doing a church service and that should be fun and interesting.... two of our girls are sick and I'm getting over a cold....so I'll let everyone know how it goes. Hahaha. We are possibly climbing Table Mountain - mainly for the Thailand team- and it will be fun! ...Jennelle, Eilidh and I will be taking the Cable car if it is open and working. But yeah, not too much other than that. You are all in my prayers! Please keep praying!
Sarah
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