Thanksgiving Plans

Many of you have been wondering what I will be doing for Thanksgiving so I decided to blog my plans. The ILC will be providing a big Thanksgiving lunch for us but we are are on our own for dinner. My small group has decided that we are all going to make different dishes and have Thanksgiving dinner together. We are going to eat, play games, and watch Christmas movies. We are so excited. I love my small group!

I know I have not explained much about small groups, so please allow me to briefly explain. When you arrive at the ILC they place you in a small group of about 8 to twelve people that are going to the same region as you. Everyday we meet from 8-9am and spend time in the word and prayer. We also have house church together from 9-12 on Sundays. On Sundays we each take turns leading house church so we are prepared to lead others in God's word when we get on the field.

I have grown so close to my small group! We have become like family. We have an older couple and an older single lady named Mrs. Patty. They are our adopted grandparents here. They love on us and take care of us. They are so amazing and a have so much wisdom. We also have two younger couples and the rest of us are all single journey girls.

Right now our group is learning the Storying method. One of us will lead each day by telling the group a bible story and the rest of us go around and repeat the story. This is how we will teach them in the jungle. We will teach them bible stories and show pictures or possibly act out the story, then allow someone to repeat what was said or just parts they remember. Then we will allow time for questions about the story.

Just a quick side note; the day after Thanksgiving we will be taking a trip to DC to learn more about our culture. You are allowed to group up with anyone in your region. My partners Lori, Misty and I are going to tour together. We have been given instructions to look for different stores and eat at restaurants that represent our culture. We are also encouraged to find a native, learn more about the culture through them and possibly witness to them. Please be praying for us, that God will open our eyes and prepare the hearts of those He wants us to share with. I will be blogging afterwards and letting you know how it went. Thanks again. I love you guys!

Little Update

I will just update you on what has been going on recently here at the ILC. First I want to thank everyone for their encouraging cards they sent me. They always brighten my day! I have the BEST core team ever! Last Friday was shot day and I received 3 shots and will go back this Friday for more. They weren't that bad, except for one that felt like she was shooting me with warm jelly.

Each week we have been experiencing different international foods. We have had Indonesian and Middle eastern food so far. It was awesome! We had to eat with our hands, something my mom never let me do. The Indonesian food was weird but turned out to be good. We had a bowl of rice with some strange looking meat in it, then .....you add the sides. Wait for it.... spicy jelly, coconut, raisins, and sunflower seeds. It looked gross but it was really good if you like sweet and spicy.

Learning Spanish in America is no easy task. I have been memorizing the creation story in English and in Spanish. This is tough because my Spanish is really bad! Last week I went with a group to evangelize in the mall and I got to share with some Hispanics. There were two Hispanic janitors cleaning out the trash cans, so I just walked up to them and asked them where they were from. Well, it turns out they don't know ANY English, so I just kept on talking. I tried to use as much of the little Spanish I know. This required a lot of acting out an hand motions. Pretty soon, I had what seemed like all the janitors in the mall all crowded around me just listening. I think they understood, although they were laughing a lot and saying some things back and forth in Spanish. I think they were saying, "What is this crazy girl talking about?" I don't know but let's keep listening, she is entertaining. I guess if anything They saw my care for them, Christ's love for them and they got a good show. It breaks my heart that for so many years of going to the mall I have looked over them and not payed any attention to them. They are the mission field. Some of the most humble and sweet people you will ever meet.

After sharing with everyone at the ILC about Akot, many people have come up to me to tell me they went to Wal-mart and ran into Akot. They told him they were my friend and that they were praying for him. I saw Akot yesterday in Wal-mart and he was grinning ear to ear. He said, "AMY! Hello, how are you? Amy, you have many many friends!" I don't think he realized when I told him I would tell my friends who are missionaries to pray for him, how many of us there were. We laughed as I explained why there were so many people that knew about him and were praying for him. He is doing well. I ask that you continue to pray for him and the other men from Sudan that work in Wal-mart. Pray that God gives me equal opportunities to share with them. Wouldn't it be awesome if a mighty move of God started in Wal-mart because of the prayers of many believers! We are now emailing each other and I hope to be able to encourage and challenge him in his faith while I am here. Love you so much! Your sister in Christ

God's Timing is Perfect!

I have to share this awesome story of what your prayers are making happen. God is so good! Last Sunday night my friends and I decided to go ice skating. Once we got to the ice skating rink there was a hockey game going on so we decided to hit up Walmart. When we were checking out I noticed the guy working at self check out looked like he was from Africa, but I didn't want to ask him, and offend him if he wasn't. So I watched him and noticed that instead of just standing behind the podium and waiting for people to ask for help, he was going up to everyone in the self checkout lanes, taking their receipts for them and handing it to them with a big smile. I knew then, he is NOT American.

I went up to him and asked him where he was from and he told me he was from Sudan. I got very excited and I explained my love for Africa and that I have always wanted to be a missionary there. His face lit up and we began talking about his life. After about three minutes his manager came up and told him it was time for his 15 minute break. I knew this was the Lord and a great opportunity to share the truth with him.

He told me that he grew up during the war and that his dad died in the war. I asked if he knew of the invisible children, the night walkers, and he said " the lost boys? Yes, I was one of them." Right there I wanted to cry and hug him. I told him how I heard about the war and the lost boys in college and began praying for these children and getting the word out by going door to door. My sister and I decided to do a triathlon to raise money to help these children and their families. Never would I have thought I would meet one of them! I have to admit it took everything in me not to squeeze and hug him right in the middle of Walmart. I think I scared him a little with my excitement.

He then began to tell me that the UN found him and a group of boys and took them to Kenya for safety. He hasn't seen his family in 20 years, he is 27 now. In Kenya, is where he first heard about Jesus and began believing in God. Before the war he said you were not allowed to be anything but Muslim or you would be punished or killed. His family decided to believe in nothing and his grandparents were witchdoctors. He doesn't know if they believe in God or not, but chances are they don't.

He said he goes to a catholic church here and a red flag went up in my mind. I told him that I have friends that are catholic and they believe differently than I do about what it means to be a Christian. He gave me a worried look and said, really, well can you tell me what you believe it means to be a christian? AHHH!!! Yeah, that's right. I was jumping out of my skin! I shared through Romans and used illustrations. I can't say it all flowed because I couldn't really think straight I was so excited!

To God be the glory! If he understood anything it was the Holy Spirit. His manger kept coming back and telling him his time was up and he said OK please one more minute. He was hanging on to every word, which made me more excited. I wrote down the verses for him and my email and told him to look them up tonight and remember what I had told him.

I then looked him straight in the eyes and told him it was not by chance that I talked to him, but that God sent me. He wanted me to tell him that He loves him and has not forgotten about him or his family. He began to tear up and look down. I promised him I would pray for him and his family and would get many others to as well. He had to go, he thanked me and we left Walmart so moved by what God had done.

I shared this in front of everyone here, and told them to pray. The past couple of days everyone has come up to me and told me they saw Akot and told him his friend Amy told them to pray for him and they were. He has been very grateful but I am afraid he might be getting overwhelmed now by all the people coming up to him. Someone just told me today he told them he is writing me a letter, hopefuly it doesn't say, "Please don't tell anyone else about me. I am getting tired of all these people I don't know coming up to me." (Haha)

Please pray for him and the other guys that live with him that are also from Sudan. There are about 7 that work and live together. Pray for more opportunities to share, opened eyes to these opportunities God has before us, a boldness, and the Holy Spirit to lead and move. To God be the gory! Amen!

Experiencing Different Cultures

This week has been great. We start our immunizations this Friday, which means a lot of shots! Every Sunday morning we get in small groups according to our region and worship together. We are learning how to lead church, taking out any traditions or opinions of our own and sticking only to what the word of God says. We use the example Paul and the early apostles laid out for us in Acts.

On Sunday nights we have cross cultural worship services. The first week was Asia and we dressed according to their dress, we took off our shoes before entering, and we were not allowed to have a bible. The lights were dimmed and we all had to whisper due to the persecution of the believers all over Asia. The whole service was done in Chinese and although we didn't understand much our hearts were united in Christ. It was so awesome as we prayed for the persecuted Christians and missionaries there right now. The Holy spirit blessed us with His presence and a brokenness for the people of Asia.

This past Sunday night was an African worship service. It was so much fun! The women had to wear head coverings and skirts. We sang and danced to all the African songs we learned and had a great time. Any time the speaker said something we like we all said Amen in unison which made him speak longer, it was awesome. After the speaker would read a story in the bible or a passage he would ask for someone to repeat it back to him. They do this so they can all get a full understanding of the scripture and the group can share what Gods taught them through it all. Needless to say after the service everyone wanted to go to Africa!

We are on the Mission field

I just wanted to share a little about what God has been teaching me recently. When we arrived at the ILC we were asked to get an accountablity partner and make a list of goals that you want to accolpish throughout FPO. One of my goals was to witness to at least one person every time I go off campus and also here to the cafeteria workers. We have been told the cafeteria workers are probaly not saved and have been encouraged to share the gospel with them.

I quickly formed a relationship with most of them, one of them being a crazy man from the Bronx named Everette. Immediately God laid him on my heart and I have been praying for an opportunity to witness to him. Just the other night he came in the gym and we started talking about life. I asked him where is was from, what his life was like when he grew up, and what he believed in. I then shared with him about my crazy family, and how Jesus has changed my life and is my best friend. He then asked me to share with him how to be a christian! I was screaming on the inside I was so excited, haha.

The Lord ordained the whole conversation, it was awesome. After about an hour he was late for work and he had to go. I told him to remember what I said and go home and talk to God. I also told him that it wasn't coincidence that he came in the gym. He seemed very genuine and listened to every word. He told me he wanted to talk more about this and thanked me over and over again and then left for work. That next morning he ran into my friend and told her to tell me and everyone that he loved us but was being transfered somewhere else, because he was only a temp for Aramark. That's the last time I saw him. God's timing is perfect! I am currently sharing with the other workers. Please pray that God provides more opportunities as he did with Everette and Please pray that Everette realizes his need for a savior.

Life at the ILC

So far it has been great! I just recieved some cards and letters from you guys and they really brightened my day. Thank you so much! We just finished the spiritual warfare series with Jerry Rankin and it was AMAZING. So some of you have been wondering what we do all day so here goes. From 8 to 9 we spend time in the word. We are going through Acts studying the church and the lives of the misssionaries in each chapter. I never knew you could find so much truth in one chapter. We take a chapter each morning and for the first hour reading teh chapter alone then we pass a mike and share what we learned using the speka method. s(what sins did you notice) p(what promises did you see) e( what examples are there) c( is there a command to follow) k( what knowledge is there to leran) a( what application). I love using this and I encourage you to try it out and see how much you learn. After this we have classes back to back till 3 or 5 with 10 minute breaks in between.

After classes we have free time and everday there are different sports to play. I play a sport everyday and try to run. We start our training soon. I have been told iwe will be running long distance with backpacks full of rocks, AHH! I am currently learning how to play soccer. I'm not too good at that sport. I kept wanting to catch the ball with my hands, apparently thats not allowed. We play ultimate frisbee, disc golf, basketball, volleyball, and dodgeball. You would think I have a lot of free time but I can't stop talking to everyone one and I end up not getting anything done.

Please pray for me to be able to balance everything. So after "fellowshipping" and playing sports I get back to my room around 11 or 12. This has become a distraction for me, so please pray for me to draw myself away and spend quality time alone with the Lord. I love you and will be blogging again soon!