SOE 2010

Hey everyone!
Well I'm finally back to base doing my SOE. It's been amazing being back so far! I love seeing all my friends and I definitely feel at home here. But I guess what is pretty cool is God is already changing me and molding me and it's only the third day!

Personally, God is showing me the importance of intimacy with Him. I feel like that is something I definitely lack and God is taking me through a time of figuring out what that really means and also what love really means. It's been a hard process so far(haha all of the TWO days) but it's been good. He is already speaking into my life so much of the misconception I had of real intimacy with Him. I'm realizing that real intimacy is more then just setting an hour aside for Him. It's a constant thing, throughout the day, complete devotion to another thing. I know this is only the beginning but one of the leaders said this yesterday:

"Intimacy before Destiny."

Those three words really made me think. I came to this SOE to learn more about my future, my calling, what I'll be doing in India, etc. But I must be intimate with the Lord before He can reveal anything to me about my future. So I'm crying out for the Lord and for this special connection with Him. But desperation is not an emotional thing. And I'm trying to remember that. God doesn't answer casual prayers, but desperate ones.

As a class, yesterday we learned about Israel and its importance. It was really amazing. I've never had a longing to go to this land but now I really want to go. Jewish people bore our salvation, or Jesus, and so we really should honor and respect the people. God has performed so many miracles through the place. And isnt it funny that such a tiny place has so much attention from the world? SOMETHING must be there! And plus, that's the place where Jesus was, and Jesus will return. That's so phenomenal to me. We also talked about 16 prophecies that were given through the Bible about Israel. Thirteen of them have been exactly fufilled. Exactly. God is such a covenant keeping God!

Also, more info about Romania! =]
I'll be there for a little over a month I believe and possibly with be working in the Czech Republic with prostitution ministry! And most excitingly, we will be working with Gypsies! I'm so excited about this. And also, we will be working with Fatherheart ministry, which is a ministry that holds pregnant teenagers through their pregnancy. I cant even describe how excited I am for this time with the Lord!
Please pray for finances, I'll need about $2800 dollars which is more then usual.

On to my next adventure:

Yes, I am doing the next school in YWAM Tyler which is the School of Evangelism(SOE).
Since you asked so nicely, I did not want to do that school at first, however God changed my heart. I'm so excited for another five months of growing in the Lord and letting Him take over me completely! It will be the same type of thing: 3 months of lecture, 2 months of outreach. This outreach I'm especially excited for. I'll be spending it in Romania working with prostitution and human sex trafficking again. God is so faithful to keep teaching me and showing me how to help these women and the amazing plan He has for their lives!

So... This blog will continue.
=]

Love.

Bell(Lady Boy) and Mali.
<3

Well hey there everyone.
Havent updated for a few days but yeahh not much has happened I guess to update on.
The bars have still been going good. God re-opened my heart last night very heavily. I'm not going to share everything that happened, but lets just say I have alot more fuel for my fire now.

Tomorrow I'm going to ride elephants =] hooray!!

I leave thailand in five days. That's so insane-this has gone by soooo quickly. I have two weeks left of DTS. Holy crap. I'm getting nervous to do finish this thing... God help me please.

I just wrote a whole post and then it got deleted. Uggghh.

Sorry I havent been updating lately. We havent been doing much but it still seems like we have no time to do anything.
During the day time we've been working towards YWAMS 50th anniversary tonight. I get to dress up like a thai person which makes no sense to me because I'm tall and large. But they still picked me. And ofcourse we get to bring in Loren and Darline Cunningham on bamboo thrones. What an accomplishment.

At night we've continued to go to the bars. I'm in love with that place because of the prostituted people there. Ive continued to see Mali each time we've gone, even if its just to say hi. God has completely opened that door for me. She speaks amazing english and starts the conversations with me. We've exchanged chocolate, lots of hugs, and lots of cheek kisses. I love her ridiculously and my heart is after her.
Last night I went to a new bar because there was a party at Wooden bar, or Mali's bar. I started talking to the women because they started yelling at me telling me I was beautiful and "LONG!". They then preceded to touch my arms over and over again haha. We ate fruit and played connect four until their customers came in. Mai, my newest friend, insisted I meet them. I had never been in that position of talking to the customers yet. I was nervous, but went for it.(It was safe, Steve was three feet away from me and watching very closely).
"Hey my name is Julie, nice to meet you."
"Thats a coincidence, my ex wife that I just divorced yesterday was named Julie."
"Oh..ummm..."
"Let me buy you a drink!"

bahahah.
It wasnt threatening whatsoever. I talked to them about life for a bit over my coke zero. It was hard at times seeing the things they would do to my new friends. But I continued to talk to them because my poker face is getting very good. I love these bars. I come alive when I get there, not in a bad way, but I love hanging out with these people. I could do it everyday and I'm so excited to know that this is my calling.

Today we went back during the day time to pray. Amy, Johannes, Charles and I. We decided to sing some worship songs there. Once we got there it was shocking; The bars look so different. If you didnt see the signs and the boxing ring, it would seem like a complete different place. Its so peaceful even more then the village. We prayed there for a good hour and God continued to just pour out His heart into mine. I'm after these Lady Boy's and Prostituted women's hearts!
I took a picture but it wont let me upload it right now. I will later though.

Keep praying!

Ba Bong Village!

Well I'm back from the village! It was such a hard, but good 10 or so days. Its hard to just write one blog of everything that happened but I'll do my best.

The village is 3 hours away. We rode in Jeepneys and I almost died by stomach sickness, which was not the best experience. Anyways, we get there and go into our host homes. My host home was the village chef's. The moms name was Mywan and she had a son and her husband. I loved them dearly. Esther and I both stayed there which was incredibly fun. The village looked alot different then we were all expecting, which is a very sad reality: Many men come to that village to get girls for prostitution.
Out of an entire village, there was only maybe 20 or so children, with only a few of them being girls. The rest of the village has given up their daughters so that they can have nice houses, small cars, etc. I dont think my house specifically did this but the other ones have for a fact. Just the thought of that made me so sick.

The first day we woke up at 5 to go to the market with Mywan. We didnt know where to go, plus it was dark, so she started to direct Esther and I by touching our butts in the direction to go. It was the funniest thing...ever haha. I loved my host family.
The days in the village seemed to last for forever. We were in bed by 8 every single night because we were exhausted. Funny thing is we didnt ever do that much..

We did a VBS with the village kids too. These boys were the ultimate precious kids Ive ever met. They were very similar to the ones we met in Bohol last summer. My favorite, Om, was the most tenderhearted boy I've ever met. He would sit in my lap with me and I would just play with his hair for long periods of time. He loved hugs and smiling and blowing bubbles with me. He was precious.

We visited a church and did some stuff there too. For the first time it dawned on me that someone can be half way across the world and get the same revelation from God that your getting. These teenagers were so on fire with God and just had such a pure love for Him. That was so awesome to see.

We taught English for two days. The first day, Amy and I got strongly hit on by the principle of the school. And had the stereotypical boys yelling they loved us haha. But was fun to play teacher. The next day was amazing though. We had younger kids and I made friends with a group of girls probably 10-13 years old. I had the best time with them playing games and loving on them. It reminded me of my purpose in the village and helped me refocus. Plus I love the joy I feel when I'm playing with these children.

We were also in a Thai parade. Bahahah... okay so once a year all the surrounding villages of a sports day. We all wore red jerseys and marched with our village. We participated in the aerobics part and then cheer leaded the rest of it. Ive never cheer leaded with old Thai women which was definitely an experience.

Another highlight was cutting the women's hair... without a translator..
enough said.

The village overall went really well. I got very homesick though, worse then all of DTS. I missed my family insanely. But at the same time I had very good quiet times where I really felt God and heard Him speak to me. It amazes me that God speaks the most in our weakest moments.
I also ate more then I ever have on outreach. Seriously I probably gained 5 pounds of straight rice and oil(boy do they love oil). ugggh gross.

Now were back in Chiang Mai where I will have internet access everyday, so I'll be posting more often. Thanks for praying for me!

Mali.

I'm in such awe of God's faithfulness.
Let me start with early yesterday, which will help explain the story of the last night.
I saw my friend Olivia and we were able to hangout and eat lunch. It was really fun seeing her and talking to her about life. But she started talking about how loving the people you meet is the most important thing. It started to make me think that much of my thinking towards missions is one goal: Them becoming Christians. Although this is the ultimate goal, its not something that has to happen in the first conversation you have with a person. I guess on many missions trips we are only there for a short time, so we have to talk about God right away. But for this outreach and for my life later I'm learning about investing in people and loving on them first. If you go in right away and just start talking about God and repentence, they hardly know you or trust you. You don't know anything about them nor do they know anything about you.
Needless to say, I was thinking about that alot before we went into the bars last night. Olivia also told me to look at it as if I was hanging out with friends. I realized that these women are no different then my old non christian friends, except they have a title of being a "Prostituted woman". So going into the one bar last night, I automatically shifted my thinking.
Her name was Mali. She was 34 years old, but looked about 25. She was very beautiful and worked at the bar. I asked her where she was from and she said half Thai half Indian(Funny how India pops up EVERYWHERE with me.) 30 seconds into our conversation she asked me if we could play a game. We sat and played Jenga and Connect four for an hour and a half. It was incredibly fun. We joked and laughed like we had known each other for a long time. She hugged me when I would almost make the tower fall but somehow it stayed up.
She already started to open up about her life. It was her choice(I think) to work there. She had worked at a corporation before but wanted more money and said she enjoyed working there. She started to tell me that she was very good at the games but would charge men 100 baht(3 dollars) per game(Which I couldnt help but laugh hysterically about).
She was a fantastic woman and my heart is so for her. I left with a smile on my face and a hope for them. I didnt say one thing about Jesus or God, just talked to her about life. I really realized the importance of showing people you love and care before shoving something in their face.

So that's what happened. New post next week.