There are 9 days until Christmas and it still doesn't feel like November was just here. This week was our last full week of lecture. Next week we have 3 days of lecture and then after work duty on Wednesday, we are free to leave. I am going home with my friend Ruth. She lives in Bovaria, Southern Germany. Her dad is German and her mom is Swiss and they have 7 children. I am very much looking forward to spend time with her and also with a family. How depressing would it be to stay in Herrnhut on Christmas break, very depressing. I was very excited when she invited me to stay with her, the sentence that followed the invitation was, "Now, we just need to find 4 more people to come with too. 3 of my siblings are going to be gone this year, and I just can't stand an empty house at Christmas time". My following comment was, "This is going to sound really weird, but ummm, I have this friend, in Switzerland, and we wanted to hang out during Christmas time, do you think it would be possible for him to come to?". She was so excited. I explained how one of my bestest friends (yes, I know "bestest" isn't a word) is doing his DTS in Switizerland and he also had no where to go for Christmas. She was like, "yeah, sure I live 10 minutes from the Swiss border, that'll work out well". Totally a God thing. I am very excited to see Charlie, but it freaks me out that lecture phase has flown by, and 5 days after break, I am on my way to Africa. WOW!
I appreciate all who have been praying for our Congo team. Here are some updated prayer requests: Currently we are working on our visas. They should be here sometime this week if there are no complications. Also, we are still short about 10000 Euros as a team, nothing God can't take care of, but as the deadline approaches we need to consistently pray for this. Thank you all! I love you guys! Please update me on things at home!!!! I always enjoy hearing from you all.
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Democratic Republic of Congo
Well...I have to thank all of you for continually praying for my outreach team. If the subject of this blog didn't give it away, my team is heading to the Democratic Republic of Congo on January 2nd. It has been an incredible experience growing with the team in unity.
A few days before our deadline of Thanksgiving, we met for prayer as a team. It was Monday night at 9pm and we were all exhausted. It was the first time we had really prayed together seeking Congo as a team. Man, let me tell you, it was powerful. We all relaized that it was about letting go of Congo and realizing what the purpose of our team was. Was it to go to Congo, or to serve God? Once we all acquired the purpose of our team, the Holy Spirit flooded the room. Our prayer time lasted 2 hours or so, and within that time, we began to get visions and pictures of the team and where we were supposed to go. We met for prayer 3 more times before our Wednesday night meeting. God continued to speak to the whole team. He spoke to each one of us about going to Congo. Whether it was pictures showing the outline of the country Congo, images of African children, letting us feel at peace even if we were unsure, it was clear that God was direcing us towards Congo. The morning that we had to decide where were going, Ryan shared how his mom had been in a car accident, she was T-Boned and pushed into oncoming traffic where she was hit again. She was rescued by an off duty paramedic who was standing on the street corner when it happened. He rushed to the scene and held her neck until the ambulance got there. When she got to the hospital for observation, she was talking to one of the paramedics who had brought her there. Due to the large amount of medication she was on, she was going random events in her life, she eventually shared about how her son is heading to Congo. The paramedic stopped what he was doing, and asked why, she explained, he said "I will pray for them. I am from Congo." Wow. I couldn't believe it. Also our leader had gotten into contact with a pastor in Congo, he was in search of a YWAM DTS team, he didn't know Jon's purpose, but once he found that out, they both continued to pray about the chances of us going there.
After we all laid Congo down, we began to see what a precious gift it was to be able to go there. We really saw what an opportunity and amazing experience it would be to go there, and we would wait for God to give it back to us if He that was what he truly wanted. In the mean time we just wanted to work on building our team and listening to His voice. By the chain of events that happened in those couple days, we began to see God really speaking, yet we were still conscious of His voice. The Wednesday that we had to make a decision by, we met for prayer in the morning. During this prayer time, we recieved several impressions, especially that God was giving us Congo back. We left from the prayer time, continually thinking about this challenge that was facing us head on, but knowing that we had to have an answer by that day. That night, we were meeting with the Base Leader who told us we had to have supernatural confirmation. It was during worship time that God spoke to me, telling me that He wanted to give Congo back. I waited a bit, heard it again, and then thought about when I should tell my leaders. I waited until singing was over, then I couldn't find my leaders. Then lecture started and I couldn't leave, and then finally on break, I found my leaders praying in the staff kitchen. I told them, via note, and left. At lunch time, we met as a team, and they shared the results of their prayer time. They said once again, God spoke and felt like Congo was where God was planning for our team to go...It turns out, when I brought the note in, they were praying for impressions of confirmation for going to Congo. So cool how God's timing works out...
That night we shared with Jan. We talked about how we saw God calling us first into unity. Before we could think about the country we had to unite with one another and re-adjust our focus to Him and not Congo. We shared every single event we could think of that pointed to Congo. There were no dramatic events, but we shared our hearts and our confidence that God wanted us to go to Congo. We finished and he seemed unsure and then said, "During my prayer times, I have been feeling Congo is where you are supposed to go. One requirement, satellite phone. Otherwise, I am very excited."
So here we are planning a trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo. It's unreal. It has been my dream to go to Africa for a while...and here it is...happening. We still don't have a lot of details about what we will be doing, but have somewhat of a rough sketch. For the time being, we are praying, figuring out our budget, praying, planning dramas, praying, meeting together to learn about each other, praying, working on learning french, praying, fundraising, praying...you know how outreach goes.
I ask that you continue to pray for our team when you think of it. I will work to send you details as we find them out ourselves! I really appreciate your support. It makes my day when I get comments or emails from you guys at home! Love you all!
Here is the Jesus-Congo Team!
A few days before our deadline of Thanksgiving, we met for prayer as a team. It was Monday night at 9pm and we were all exhausted. It was the first time we had really prayed together seeking Congo as a team. Man, let me tell you, it was powerful. We all relaized that it was about letting go of Congo and realizing what the purpose of our team was. Was it to go to Congo, or to serve God? Once we all acquired the purpose of our team, the Holy Spirit flooded the room. Our prayer time lasted 2 hours or so, and within that time, we began to get visions and pictures of the team and where we were supposed to go. We met for prayer 3 more times before our Wednesday night meeting. God continued to speak to the whole team. He spoke to each one of us about going to Congo. Whether it was pictures showing the outline of the country Congo, images of African children, letting us feel at peace even if we were unsure, it was clear that God was direcing us towards Congo. The morning that we had to decide where were going, Ryan shared how his mom had been in a car accident, she was T-Boned and pushed into oncoming traffic where she was hit again. She was rescued by an off duty paramedic who was standing on the street corner when it happened. He rushed to the scene and held her neck until the ambulance got there. When she got to the hospital for observation, she was talking to one of the paramedics who had brought her there. Due to the large amount of medication she was on, she was going random events in her life, she eventually shared about how her son is heading to Congo. The paramedic stopped what he was doing, and asked why, she explained, he said "I will pray for them. I am from Congo." Wow. I couldn't believe it. Also our leader had gotten into contact with a pastor in Congo, he was in search of a YWAM DTS team, he didn't know Jon's purpose, but once he found that out, they both continued to pray about the chances of us going there.
After we all laid Congo down, we began to see what a precious gift it was to be able to go there. We really saw what an opportunity and amazing experience it would be to go there, and we would wait for God to give it back to us if He that was what he truly wanted. In the mean time we just wanted to work on building our team and listening to His voice. By the chain of events that happened in those couple days, we began to see God really speaking, yet we were still conscious of His voice. The Wednesday that we had to make a decision by, we met for prayer in the morning. During this prayer time, we recieved several impressions, especially that God was giving us Congo back. We left from the prayer time, continually thinking about this challenge that was facing us head on, but knowing that we had to have an answer by that day. That night, we were meeting with the Base Leader who told us we had to have supernatural confirmation. It was during worship time that God spoke to me, telling me that He wanted to give Congo back. I waited a bit, heard it again, and then thought about when I should tell my leaders. I waited until singing was over, then I couldn't find my leaders. Then lecture started and I couldn't leave, and then finally on break, I found my leaders praying in the staff kitchen. I told them, via note, and left. At lunch time, we met as a team, and they shared the results of their prayer time. They said once again, God spoke and felt like Congo was where God was planning for our team to go...It turns out, when I brought the note in, they were praying for impressions of confirmation for going to Congo. So cool how God's timing works out...
That night we shared with Jan. We talked about how we saw God calling us first into unity. Before we could think about the country we had to unite with one another and re-adjust our focus to Him and not Congo. We shared every single event we could think of that pointed to Congo. There were no dramatic events, but we shared our hearts and our confidence that God wanted us to go to Congo. We finished and he seemed unsure and then said, "During my prayer times, I have been feeling Congo is where you are supposed to go. One requirement, satellite phone. Otherwise, I am very excited."
So here we are planning a trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo. It's unreal. It has been my dream to go to Africa for a while...and here it is...happening. We still don't have a lot of details about what we will be doing, but have somewhat of a rough sketch. For the time being, we are praying, figuring out our budget, praying, planning dramas, praying, meeting together to learn about each other, praying, working on learning french, praying, fundraising, praying...you know how outreach goes.
I ask that you continue to pray for our team when you think of it. I will work to send you details as we find them out ourselves! I really appreciate your support. It makes my day when I get comments or emails from you guys at home! Love you all!
Here is the Jesus-Congo Team!
Sunday, December 03, 2006
thanksgiving...
Since I am living in Germany right now, Thanksgiving isn't really something that gets celebrated. In fact, on Thanksgiving Day, we has mashed potatoes for lunch, and I thought that was going to be the closest thing we got to a typical Thanksgiving meal. But there are too many Americans here for that to happen..
Adam got us all together, we delegated the work, and at 3:00 last Saturday, we all got together for an amazing meal. It went much better then anyone could've planned, I think we were all surprised by how well the food tasted and that there was enough to go around. Before the festivities on Saturday we had some hang out time...
It was a pancake party for my Finnish friend Riikka. It was so fun to have everyone at the apartment and spend one on one time with everyone. However much we enjoyed each other, the pancakes were the highlight. Pancakes, tasted like home. Thanks to my wonderful mother, I also was able to have peanut butter on them. Excellent food.
We couldn't find a turkey, or cranberries, or sweet potatoes, or, or, or...so there was a lot of stuff we didn't have but that made things much more exciting.
The stuffing of course, was the best part of the meal. My mom makes the best stuffing, and I am willing to fight with anyone who disagrees. So before Saturday, I thought, why not try to make it, they have everything in Germany that I need for that. Besides stuffing is the best part, you cannot have Thanksgiving without stuffing. The best part of stuffing is the sausage. You need ground sausage for stuffing, but we are Germany, they love sausage, so they have that here...NOT! We spent most of last Saturday trying to find a solution for this, in the end, we squeezed the meat out of a bratwurst. Yucky. What a special experience that was to share with my dear friends, please take note of the pictures. Some other stuffing issues we had, no celery or sage here. However, Adam did buy two different plants that resembled celery, but in the end, were a leak and some other random vegetable. Yeah, not to worry, it was a hit, despite the lack of ingredients.
After our meal, we went and played games with all the American staff and Americans in Herrnhut. It was a very memorable day, and I am thrilled that we got to spend the time together...
Also you will notice the random costumes. I hope you recognized Charlotte and I were pilgrims. The Friday before our special Thanksgiving we had a nations party. Since we didn't get the chance to dress up for Halloween, we went all out. Everyone wore the traditional clothing of their country or another one. What did we think of when we wanted to dress up as traditional americans? How about the first Americans? So we did our best...thought you might want to see pictures of the world's cutest pilgrim couple...
How was everyone at home's Thanksgivings? I would love to hear about them and see pictures!!!!
Thursday, November 16, 2006
pictures for mom (and others too...)!
Alright...The pictures on the bottom are from Mission-Live, us working hard and eating at McDonalds for the first time here.
The pictures towards the middle are from Trumpet Tour, you will see in there, my first Starbucks in Nurnberg (and later on my third trip to Starbucks with Julie in Berlin), the FIRST SNOW of many in Germany! There are several sight seeing pictures, I wish I could specifically tell you which is which, but the computer doesn't allow for that.
The first pictures you saw, the top couple, are the tail end of tour. The girls and guys saying bye to Wayne, the speaker's son. Who can forget, fun times on the bus? You will also notice somewhere in there, Bethany hitting me over the head with a red hammer. Where did we get that? How about from over our heads on the bus...Yeah, here is the states we have kick-out windows on busses, not in Germany, they're hardcore, they have mini sledge hammers so everyone can pound their way out of the bus. How exciting.
Sorry, all these pictures are kind of vague and random and without explanation but I figured better this than nothing!
LASTLY, my outreach team is in need of prayer. We are unsure if we are going to be able to go to D.R. Congo. This is mostly because it is currently in unsafe condition and there is a lack of stability within the country. However, we are seeking God for supernatural confirmation before we think about a different country. Whatever He speaks, we will listen to. Our cutoff date is next Thursday, so until then, many of us are fasting and really seeking God for His plan. He spoke clearly in the beginning about us going to Congo, and now as a whole team we are looking to Him for clear direction. It is all quite exciting, and we are all learning about fully seeking and trusting God, we have no other choice and this is trluy the best position to be in. So please pray for us a team!
God Bless you all!
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
answered prayer.
And a word from the mother...yes, this is my second post today...
"First let me thank you for your faithful prayers on Molly's behalf. I had an email from her this morning and she is doing much better! That is a huge praise!! She said that the medicine worked amazingly and she is feeling about 95%! She is still struggling a bit from the headache/stomach stuff but overall is feeling well. She said she has been able to use this down time to study II Corinthians and prepare for the next phase of teaching. She did not say for certain, but most likely she should be able to travel back and rejoin her group in Modiocolo. That will include a very bumpy, 9 hour journey! But I know she is anxious to return.
You have all been wonderful to pray and ask for updates. Truly our family has experienced God's peace and assurance as a result of your faithful petitions. Thank you!"
Thank you. You guys rock. Prayer is POWERFUL.
"First let me thank you for your faithful prayers on Molly's behalf. I had an email from her this morning and she is doing much better! That is a huge praise!! She said that the medicine worked amazingly and she is feeling about 95%! She is still struggling a bit from the headache/stomach stuff but overall is feeling well. She said she has been able to use this down time to study II Corinthians and prepare for the next phase of teaching. She did not say for certain, but most likely she should be able to travel back and rejoin her group in Modiocolo. That will include a very bumpy, 9 hour journey! But I know she is anxious to return.
You have all been wonderful to pray and ask for updates. Truly our family has experienced God's peace and assurance as a result of your faithful petitions. Thank you!"
Thank you. You guys rock. Prayer is POWERFUL.
Monday, November 13, 2006
18 days.
This is the first post in 18 days. Overall these past 3 weeks have been life changing and so much fun.
Mission Live Conference rocked. As a base, we organized the conference. It was crazy exciting. Everyone worked together to make it all come together. People decorated. Others were part of the security team. Some made food. People directed parking...It was a group effort for sure. We had speakers who are affiliated with YWAM all around the world. The Directors from YWAM South Africa, Haiti, Amsterdam and Herrnhut, of course, all came to the conference and spoke on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The goal of the conference was to show people God's calling for their lives. It is the hope of all these bases that the 10/40 Window will dissapate because of missionaries, especially ones from Europe. They are working together to call missionaries out of the world, and the conference was a tool to call missionaries out. It was exciting to not attend the conference for my own good, but to serve others. We got the chance to pray over people, lead small groups, help out with workshops, etc. The times when we sang, always were wonderful, and really pumped the people up. We also got prayed over as Herrnhut before our short term outreaches. Then as a huge group of disciples, we commisioned Eva and Irena to Calcutta. They were base staff at Herrnhut and now are going to Calcutta, India to serve as full time missionaries. It was beautiful. The conference was exhausting because we were serving the whole day. From 6 am when breakfast needed to be prepared, until midnight when the speakers finished speaking. From the conference all the teams dispersed into their outreaches. One team went to Serbia, another to Amsterdam, another to Czech Republic and of course ours went on Trumpet Tour!
Trumpet tour was so cool. We left from Reichenbauch and traveled five hours the first day to a church in Northern Germany. On an average day though, we would spend 5-10 hours on the bus. We made zig-zags all over Germany. every night the program started with a time of singing, lead by our team sometimes and sometimes members from the church. We would introduce what we were doing and why we were at their church. Then we would always do this song "Ask for the Natons" accompanied by a flag dance, yes a flag dance. Sounds cheesy, but it ended up being really rad. I carried the flag of Khazikstan and at one part of our dance we would go into the audience and say "God bless you" in different languages. Phonetically it is "Blagoslavit tebya gespoat". The whole point of Trumpet Tour was similar to Mission Live, to show people the need in the nations and how God wants to use us to build up his kingdom, also to call people out of the churches to go into these nations. At the same time build unity among the churches in Germany so they can support each other and really reach the unreached. All of that to say, the flag dance was our contribution to show people that God wants to give them neighborhoods, cities, states, nations. This was a concept I had never heard of, and it really got me excited. In Psalm 2:8 the Lord says "Ask of me, and I will give YOU the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possesion". When we went into these churches it was consistently our prayer for revival, and that the radical teaching and ideas would rise up an excitement for reaching the lost. After this, Evanne would speak about Terry Snow, and introduce him, then he would go up and speak. Terry is from Texas but now lives in Haiti where he is the YWAM director in St. Mark. Every night he would share the same message, and every night it got better. He would really seek God about how He wanted him to format the message to the church. So each night it had a different twist to it, but for the most part he would share the same message. By the end of the 9 churches visited, any one of us could've told the story.
The biggest thing that happened for me personally during this time was seeing the power of prayer. Every church we went to, we prayed for them from 20 minutes-an hour and a half. At every church we saw God wanted to do something big there. Every church different people from our team had incredible visions for the church as a body. Every church we left, we saw something change. There is power in prayer. I feel like prayer is really where I was lacking in my relationship with the Lord before I came to Germany. I feel so blessed to have gained such a precious tool. This is such an exciting discovery. I feel like I will never be the same because I have been blessed to find this.
After 6 days of Trumpet Tour all the teams met up in Berlin. Terry was our speaker, and spoke about evangelism. In the afternoons we did street evangelism. Oh man, it was awesome. I can't even begin to describe how God rattled Berlin. Those were an amazing 4 days. I also got the chance to see a lot of Berlin, which was such an experience.
Then we left Berlin and continued on Tour. We traveled 30 hours in 3 days. It was exhausting. When we are in our weaknesses, that is the most exciting time to see God move. At each church the Holy Spirit was present like never before. Oh man, I can't even express it...
We got back to Herrnhut on Sunday night at 10 pm. It was great to share memories with all the teams and re-unify everyone together. We didn't have a lot of time in Berlin to share with everyone so Monday on our day off, we all talked each others ears off.
This week we are learning about our Identity in Christ. In order to catch up on lost time we had late night lecture yesterday and early morning today. I am excited to see how this week unfolds...We were warned that it is the most intense week yet...
Thanks for reading guys! I wish I could've shared more, but it is impossible to share every detail. Hopefully it will continue to seep into other posts because I want to share everything that God did!
Please pray for Molly. As many of you know, she is in Uganda right now. She has gotten sick within the past week and they aren't sure what's going on...
Mission Live Conference rocked. As a base, we organized the conference. It was crazy exciting. Everyone worked together to make it all come together. People decorated. Others were part of the security team. Some made food. People directed parking...It was a group effort for sure. We had speakers who are affiliated with YWAM all around the world. The Directors from YWAM South Africa, Haiti, Amsterdam and Herrnhut, of course, all came to the conference and spoke on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The goal of the conference was to show people God's calling for their lives. It is the hope of all these bases that the 10/40 Window will dissapate because of missionaries, especially ones from Europe. They are working together to call missionaries out of the world, and the conference was a tool to call missionaries out. It was exciting to not attend the conference for my own good, but to serve others. We got the chance to pray over people, lead small groups, help out with workshops, etc. The times when we sang, always were wonderful, and really pumped the people up. We also got prayed over as Herrnhut before our short term outreaches. Then as a huge group of disciples, we commisioned Eva and Irena to Calcutta. They were base staff at Herrnhut and now are going to Calcutta, India to serve as full time missionaries. It was beautiful. The conference was exhausting because we were serving the whole day. From 6 am when breakfast needed to be prepared, until midnight when the speakers finished speaking. From the conference all the teams dispersed into their outreaches. One team went to Serbia, another to Amsterdam, another to Czech Republic and of course ours went on Trumpet Tour!
Trumpet tour was so cool. We left from Reichenbauch and traveled five hours the first day to a church in Northern Germany. On an average day though, we would spend 5-10 hours on the bus. We made zig-zags all over Germany. every night the program started with a time of singing, lead by our team sometimes and sometimes members from the church. We would introduce what we were doing and why we were at their church. Then we would always do this song "Ask for the Natons" accompanied by a flag dance, yes a flag dance. Sounds cheesy, but it ended up being really rad. I carried the flag of Khazikstan and at one part of our dance we would go into the audience and say "God bless you" in different languages. Phonetically it is "Blagoslavit tebya gespoat". The whole point of Trumpet Tour was similar to Mission Live, to show people the need in the nations and how God wants to use us to build up his kingdom, also to call people out of the churches to go into these nations. At the same time build unity among the churches in Germany so they can support each other and really reach the unreached. All of that to say, the flag dance was our contribution to show people that God wants to give them neighborhoods, cities, states, nations. This was a concept I had never heard of, and it really got me excited. In Psalm 2:8 the Lord says "Ask of me, and I will give YOU the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possesion". When we went into these churches it was consistently our prayer for revival, and that the radical teaching and ideas would rise up an excitement for reaching the lost. After this, Evanne would speak about Terry Snow, and introduce him, then he would go up and speak. Terry is from Texas but now lives in Haiti where he is the YWAM director in St. Mark. Every night he would share the same message, and every night it got better. He would really seek God about how He wanted him to format the message to the church. So each night it had a different twist to it, but for the most part he would share the same message. By the end of the 9 churches visited, any one of us could've told the story.
The biggest thing that happened for me personally during this time was seeing the power of prayer. Every church we went to, we prayed for them from 20 minutes-an hour and a half. At every church we saw God wanted to do something big there. Every church different people from our team had incredible visions for the church as a body. Every church we left, we saw something change. There is power in prayer. I feel like prayer is really where I was lacking in my relationship with the Lord before I came to Germany. I feel so blessed to have gained such a precious tool. This is such an exciting discovery. I feel like I will never be the same because I have been blessed to find this.
After 6 days of Trumpet Tour all the teams met up in Berlin. Terry was our speaker, and spoke about evangelism. In the afternoons we did street evangelism. Oh man, it was awesome. I can't even begin to describe how God rattled Berlin. Those were an amazing 4 days. I also got the chance to see a lot of Berlin, which was such an experience.
Then we left Berlin and continued on Tour. We traveled 30 hours in 3 days. It was exhausting. When we are in our weaknesses, that is the most exciting time to see God move. At each church the Holy Spirit was present like never before. Oh man, I can't even express it...
We got back to Herrnhut on Sunday night at 10 pm. It was great to share memories with all the teams and re-unify everyone together. We didn't have a lot of time in Berlin to share with everyone so Monday on our day off, we all talked each others ears off.
This week we are learning about our Identity in Christ. In order to catch up on lost time we had late night lecture yesterday and early morning today. I am excited to see how this week unfolds...We were warned that it is the most intense week yet...
Thanks for reading guys! I wish I could've shared more, but it is impossible to share every detail. Hopefully it will continue to seep into other posts because I want to share everything that God did!
Please pray for Molly. As many of you know, she is in Uganda right now. She has gotten sick within the past week and they aren't sure what's going on...
Thursday, October 26, 2006
a crazy week...
This week has been insanely busy for the whole castle...
Today, well actually in twenty minutes we are leaving for a conference that we planned as a base, in Rechenbauch. Oh man, I am stoked. Then after this 3 day conference, the base disperses for mini-outreaches. One team is going to Serbia, another to Amsterdam, one to Czech-Republic and I am going all around Germany for Trumpet Tour.
We will all be gone for a total of 2 weeks away from the castle, but only apart from one another for a week. After Mission-Live and Trumpet tour, we are doing outreach as a whole school in Berlin. We also will have lecture that week in Berlin. I am very excited to see some of Germany and share it with everyone in the school...
I love you all, and I can't wait to share all that happens. I don't know next time I will be able to write, so I look forward to talking to you all when I can!
Here is my address for all of those I have promised it to!
Bekah Dinneen
JMEM/DTS
Untere Dorfstr. 56
02747 Herrnhut-Ruppersdorf
Germany
Today, well actually in twenty minutes we are leaving for a conference that we planned as a base, in Rechenbauch. Oh man, I am stoked. Then after this 3 day conference, the base disperses for mini-outreaches. One team is going to Serbia, another to Amsterdam, one to Czech-Republic and I am going all around Germany for Trumpet Tour.
We will all be gone for a total of 2 weeks away from the castle, but only apart from one another for a week. After Mission-Live and Trumpet tour, we are doing outreach as a whole school in Berlin. We also will have lecture that week in Berlin. I am very excited to see some of Germany and share it with everyone in the school...
I love you all, and I can't wait to share all that happens. I don't know next time I will be able to write, so I look forward to talking to you all when I can!
Here is my address for all of those I have promised it to!
Bekah Dinneen
JMEM/DTS
Untere Dorfstr. 56
02747 Herrnhut-Ruppersdorf
Germany
Saturday, October 21, 2006
grilled cheese and the willage.
today we finished the week of relationships. to encompass yesterday and today, we started with the example of dating from the movie "High School Musical", a movie which i gladly watched earlier this year with a bubbly home group of 5th and 6th graders. then we finished with the dance scene at the wedding in "hitch". although it had its high points, i am glad to hear an end to the word courtship. there was so much learned and i am looking forward to the weekend to process it all...
to finish off today, the trumpet tour team met, my mini outreach group met for a prayer meeting and then i met with my friends. too many meetings, but lots of fun. one of the clips that tom and jen used during the teaching, was from "the village". i love that movie. it really made me miss home though. i cant tell you how many times we as a family have watched it, and therefore molly and i now refer to each other as one another´s "cherished one". uli decided that he was going to ask if we could borrow it, so tonight we had the very special treat of watching a movie.
charlotte and i got back to the castle around 10:30, after all our meetings, and everyone was anxiously awaiting the start of the movie, seriously , this is a big deal. i had gone to the store earlier and bought the makings for grilled cheese sandwhiches (they dont refrigerate cheese, ick)and all us americans were stoked for a taste of home. now despite the fact that they eat cheese and bread at every meal, the only germans who had ever had grilled cheese, were the ones who had been to the states. honestly, what a deprived culture. it was so exciting to be the one to introduce something so important. they all found it a delectable treat. so there we were making sandwhiches at 11 pm, 15 people crowded around my laptop, and one couch. haha. it was hilarious. in this moment, just saw the community building up around me, and i cant help but smile, because i it is such a privelege to be part of it. so we proceeded to watch the movie, no one really liked it like i do, oh well, and then my computer died 3 minutes before the end. hahaha. all was well, in the end we disconnected the coffee maker, microwave and hot water heater in order to hook up my computer with the extension cord (wish we would´ve thought about that before).
now, for the best part, most of the germans pronounce all their "v" with "w". so any word with a "v" sounds awfully funny. today during the lecture when we watched the movie, i was telling my german seat mates what it was called, and they would say "ohh the willage sounds like a great movie", "the willage, i have heard of that.." and so on. Now it is a huge joke for a lot of us. haha.
i realize we cant pronounce any words in german, but there is just something that perks my sense of humor when i hear..."would you like to walk to the willage with me? it might be wery scary, but we could quote bible werses as we stroll through the walley..."
to finish off today, the trumpet tour team met, my mini outreach group met for a prayer meeting and then i met with my friends. too many meetings, but lots of fun. one of the clips that tom and jen used during the teaching, was from "the village". i love that movie. it really made me miss home though. i cant tell you how many times we as a family have watched it, and therefore molly and i now refer to each other as one another´s "cherished one". uli decided that he was going to ask if we could borrow it, so tonight we had the very special treat of watching a movie.
charlotte and i got back to the castle around 10:30, after all our meetings, and everyone was anxiously awaiting the start of the movie, seriously , this is a big deal. i had gone to the store earlier and bought the makings for grilled cheese sandwhiches (they dont refrigerate cheese, ick)and all us americans were stoked for a taste of home. now despite the fact that they eat cheese and bread at every meal, the only germans who had ever had grilled cheese, were the ones who had been to the states. honestly, what a deprived culture. it was so exciting to be the one to introduce something so important. they all found it a delectable treat. so there we were making sandwhiches at 11 pm, 15 people crowded around my laptop, and one couch. haha. it was hilarious. in this moment, just saw the community building up around me, and i cant help but smile, because i it is such a privelege to be part of it. so we proceeded to watch the movie, no one really liked it like i do, oh well, and then my computer died 3 minutes before the end. hahaha. all was well, in the end we disconnected the coffee maker, microwave and hot water heater in order to hook up my computer with the extension cord (wish we would´ve thought about that before).
now, for the best part, most of the germans pronounce all their "v" with "w". so any word with a "v" sounds awfully funny. today during the lecture when we watched the movie, i was telling my german seat mates what it was called, and they would say "ohh the willage sounds like a great movie", "the willage, i have heard of that.." and so on. Now it is a huge joke for a lot of us. haha.
i realize we cant pronounce any words in german, but there is just something that perks my sense of humor when i hear..."would you like to walk to the willage with me? it might be wery scary, but we could quote bible werses as we stroll through the walley..."
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
purity and outreach.
okay. today=best day ever.
haha.
anyways. as you know, we are learning about relationships. today andy and frank put together a beautiful message about purity in relationships, not only boy/girl, but all relationships. it was incredible. they had so much wisdom and knowledge about everything that was encompassed in this topic. they used scientific knowledge, biblical background and personal experiences to share what they knew was important.
after talking for two hours, we took a break and then split up into boy and girls. when we were with the girls, we got time to pray with leaders for issues related to purity. when the boys came back into the lecture hall (they left because there are 20 boys and 50 girls) they got down on one knee, prayed for us, and then handed us all a rose. ahhh it was so precious. they then read a declaration about how they respected us, were sorry for all the boys that had ever disrepected us, and they saw us as beautiful jewels and tools for christ. i wanted to cry. it was my first time ever recieving a flower from a boy, and i can't think of a more special way i would have liked to recieve it then this way.
then we all read in unison a declaration written for the boys. we apollogized for any girls who may have hurt them in the past. we told them how we appreciated their differences and we loved the uniqueness about each sex. we told them that we liked their manhood and we respected the way they were. andy felt that god told her, the best way to let them know our feelings was to applaud them, for 5 minutes...now doesn't really seem like a long time...but when you are screaming encouragement and clapping as loud as you can, it means aching hands and light-headedness. it was well worth it though. the boys were so surprised and overwhelmed with our stamina and genuine words that all they did was smile.
it was a very memorable way to learn about purity and its importance. yay.
then later on, we learned of our final outreach locations. two weeks ago the staff said that they had been praying for months for locations but they also wanted us to pray so that we could get confirmation of locations. after praying for 2 days, i personally felt lead to zaire/congo. it was really incredible. god laid this country on my heart even though i had never thought of going there. last week we learned of possible outreach locations. they asked us last week to pray about possibilities for us personally and for direction in the plans. in the countries presented to us, congo was not an option. i was disappointed because god had spoken so clearly. i was thinking maybe ethiopia, but wasn't at peace. friday of last week, i had 2 more visions about the congo. i let the staff know, but i wasnt sure what good it would do. they warned us that "even if you thought god spoke to you, and you dont see the country, that doesnt mean god didnt speak to you, it may be for the future. dont go through this yourself, let us know so we can pray for you." i wasnt really distraught about it, i figured they were right, and it was for the future. i talked with one of my friends, and she told me that god would give me peace about it and it was right that i had let the staff know how i felt about the congo. i found out the day that i turned in my visions, that another boy also was feeling lead to the congo. i knew after this, that it was going to happen. i could NOT wait until today at 4:30. charlotte and i walked down to the lecture hall 10 minutes early, and waited and waited and waited...soon enough, they reavealed the final countries.
ethiopia
israel
china
morocco
afghanistan
india
nepal
pakistan
congo
it was amazing. yes it really was the last country, i didnt just do that for affect, but it does help...hannah is leading the outreach, and she really felt lead there. the base has never sent a team here but knows this is where we are supposed to go. i am so ecstatic. god is sovereign. i cant wait...
love you all, i cant wait to update more!
haha.
anyways. as you know, we are learning about relationships. today andy and frank put together a beautiful message about purity in relationships, not only boy/girl, but all relationships. it was incredible. they had so much wisdom and knowledge about everything that was encompassed in this topic. they used scientific knowledge, biblical background and personal experiences to share what they knew was important.
after talking for two hours, we took a break and then split up into boy and girls. when we were with the girls, we got time to pray with leaders for issues related to purity. when the boys came back into the lecture hall (they left because there are 20 boys and 50 girls) they got down on one knee, prayed for us, and then handed us all a rose. ahhh it was so precious. they then read a declaration about how they respected us, were sorry for all the boys that had ever disrepected us, and they saw us as beautiful jewels and tools for christ. i wanted to cry. it was my first time ever recieving a flower from a boy, and i can't think of a more special way i would have liked to recieve it then this way.
then we all read in unison a declaration written for the boys. we apollogized for any girls who may have hurt them in the past. we told them how we appreciated their differences and we loved the uniqueness about each sex. we told them that we liked their manhood and we respected the way they were. andy felt that god told her, the best way to let them know our feelings was to applaud them, for 5 minutes...now doesn't really seem like a long time...but when you are screaming encouragement and clapping as loud as you can, it means aching hands and light-headedness. it was well worth it though. the boys were so surprised and overwhelmed with our stamina and genuine words that all they did was smile.
it was a very memorable way to learn about purity and its importance. yay.
then later on, we learned of our final outreach locations. two weeks ago the staff said that they had been praying for months for locations but they also wanted us to pray so that we could get confirmation of locations. after praying for 2 days, i personally felt lead to zaire/congo. it was really incredible. god laid this country on my heart even though i had never thought of going there. last week we learned of possible outreach locations. they asked us last week to pray about possibilities for us personally and for direction in the plans. in the countries presented to us, congo was not an option. i was disappointed because god had spoken so clearly. i was thinking maybe ethiopia, but wasn't at peace. friday of last week, i had 2 more visions about the congo. i let the staff know, but i wasnt sure what good it would do. they warned us that "even if you thought god spoke to you, and you dont see the country, that doesnt mean god didnt speak to you, it may be for the future. dont go through this yourself, let us know so we can pray for you." i wasnt really distraught about it, i figured they were right, and it was for the future. i talked with one of my friends, and she told me that god would give me peace about it and it was right that i had let the staff know how i felt about the congo. i found out the day that i turned in my visions, that another boy also was feeling lead to the congo. i knew after this, that it was going to happen. i could NOT wait until today at 4:30. charlotte and i walked down to the lecture hall 10 minutes early, and waited and waited and waited...soon enough, they reavealed the final countries.
ethiopia
israel
china
morocco
afghanistan
india
nepal
pakistan
congo
it was amazing. yes it really was the last country, i didnt just do that for affect, but it does help...hannah is leading the outreach, and she really felt lead there. the base has never sent a team here but knows this is where we are supposed to go. i am so ecstatic. god is sovereign. i cant wait...
love you all, i cant wait to update more!
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Long Day.
I started writing a blog. However, my brain seems to be mush...we just read the whole book of Acts (good stuff), so I will attempt to finish my blog tomorrow. I didn't want to NOT post, so here are some pictures of today. After this I am off to my flat in town. Tiring day.
1,2,3=FIRST FROST!!!! How exciting! Time to wear mittens. It was awfully cold on this mornings walk. I could hardly get my camera out of the case, and then pushing the button to take the picture...jeeze whiz...
4,5,6=Lunch time outside the castle!
4=Uli feeding me undercooked rice and mushy noodles! (learning to live like missionaries!)
5=Julie and Deanna looking fly.
6=Charlotte and I being modest.
Monday, October 16, 2006
okay, its complicated to put a caption by each picture so bear with me! here are some pictures from crazy hair night last saturday...1) this is uli after the haircut...you can't really tell, but it's a mullet. there is a before shot if you scroll down.
2) mimi is beautiful. she went all out for crazy hair night.
3) yay. i am video chatting with Molly the day before she left for Uganda. I gave her a tour of the castle.
4) Here is uli and mimi's old hair. beautiful.
5) here is where i spend my days.
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