Here we go!

I am leaving to go to the airport in about an hour!
I am so excited. Its crazy that its already time for outreach. There is a slight difference than before- there are 5 of us going to Peru now because 3 don´t have enough money yet. Its neat though, how God works, because for these 2 weeks while we will be in the jungle, they will be prayer warriors for us here, in Australia.
I´m not sure how much internet access I will be able to have, but I will try my best to keep you all updated.

Some things, I would really appreciate if you could pray for:
-Financial provision for the other 3 girls
-Safe travels
-Wisdom and direction for the jungle part of the trip-there is trouble getting tickets to get over there and -we are praying about what to do and for God to open doors (rather urgent prayer request, because we will fly to Lima and then are supposed to go straight to the jungle from there)
-Open and eager hearts to learn more about God for the kids and people in the jungle

Thank you so much for your prayers and encouragement! I could not do it without you! Hope to update you in a few weeks, when we get to Cuzco.

Love,
Jenny

El Arca Orphanage!

I just found this video about the orphanage we will be staying at and helping with for part of our outreach. This is also who we will be helping with to build a new home in the jungle.

Check it out:

El Arca Orphanage

Flood + Peru Update!

Hey guys :)!

This last week was awesome. We had lectures on Fear of The Lord and I learned tons. I loved our speaker, she was so animated and hilarious. I am continuing to learn what it truly means to make God my everything. And to really trust Him with all I have. She also spoke some on Leadership, Unity, and Conflict-Resolution. There were a ton of great and also practical things I learned. :)

Last week we also did some flood relief and helped at a house right by the river. There were tons of volunteers in that area because it got hit so hard. 

This week, we have done mainly flood relief stuff. We went out and helped at a school. We were stripping walls and some were clearing out mud in gardens, washing walls and windows, etc. Today, we went to a lady's house and some shoveled the mud in her backyard while others went in her house with this water sprayer and cleaned there. Mud has become so important to clear out here, because they now say its toxic because the sewage system busted and flowed with the river too. Fabulous, I know.

This is our last week of lectures, then we have next week of "Outreach Prep," whatever that entails. 

Peru update:

WE OFFICIALLY HAVE TICKETS! Praise God!  We leave January 30th and get back early April (I forget the exact day)

One leader got all his money and the other didn't actually so she may come late. Its kind of up in the air right now. But either way, its in God's hands. 3 of the girls still need money for the rest of outreach (just had enough for plane ticket) so if you could pray for God to provide financially, that would be so appreciated. 

So we are running a Mini Discipleship Training School with the orphanage and some kids from the community. Each day will be a lecture topic (opposed to our week-long lectures) and I will be speaking on "Character and Nature of God." haha and it would be so sweet if I could do it in spanish, but that is highly unlikely. I am also in a group with 2 other girls, and we are in charge of kids ministry. so we have to come up with kids games, songs, dramas, etc before we leave. So I need to think back to OCF VBS :)... and if anyone has suggestions, that's awesome too. And Ritch, if you read this, I want to teach them the songs we learned with those sweet people in Mexico! Remember? "Siempre que mi muevo es en ti..."! I'm so excited. 

Oh yes, and I officially am protected from Yellow Fever, Typhoid, and something else. We all went and got our shots last week. I don't know why I am updating you all with that.. I guess because I got 3 shots and was proud of myself haha... 

Below are 2 videos of when we did flood relief at the school, and today when we helped at the lady's house:

Flooding -school 

Flooding -house


Love you all so much! Thank you for your love and prayers!

p.s. apparently Guinea Pig is a delicacy in Peru and will for sure be having some of that! yaaaay haha...

Flood Update

Thank you all for your prayers. We have been very blessed with protection in Mitchelton, and not affected here by the flooding. I am not sure if we will be affected later, but our base director is hopeful and positive and doesn't think we will be, or at least not too drastically. It was actually sunny today, so praise God for that.

However, we definitely still need your prayers, because the city (15minutes away) is getting worse and worse. There is even talk of sharks and crocodiles coming down the streets! Our director here took some people today to scope out the situation and see if we would be able to send teams out to help.

Here is a part of the email update that the pastor of Life Place Church (which is now flooded) sent:

"The scenes in Brisbane today were unlike anything I have seen. Supermarkets have sold out of food. Streets are turning into rivers. Sports stadiums are being used to house people. And our city is bracing for its worse flood in living history as in the next 48 hours much of it will be underwater.
I know many of our church members have experienced devastation to their houses. Some houses have been completely flooded. Our hearts and prayers go out to you at this time."


another article:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/01/12/3111596.htm


Once again, thank you for your prayers! They are much appreciated.

Love,
Jenny

Rain rain go away!

If you have not heard yet, there is serious flooding here. It hit Toowoomba really hard, and is continuing to move towards Brisbane. Its expected to hit tomorrow, and there are evacuations going on in areas in the city (like the church I've been going to) now. The Brisbane river has already broken the banks and there is flooding in the city now. However, we are all waiting to see how bad it gets in these next days. Our suburb, Mitchelton, is thankfully pretty safe because it is on a hill. However, there will be damaging affects of the flood for many of our families and friends from our base. There are also already 10 deaths and 78 people lost from the flooding and 3/4 of Queensland has been declared a "disaster zone"..

So we need your prayer! Thank you so much. I will try and update you on what's going on.


Here are a couple articles about what's going on in Brisbane
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/environment/weather/brisbane-prepares-for-worst-flood-in-118-years-20110111-19lvq.html

http://www.theage.com.au/environment/weather/100000-to-lose-power-supermarkets-bare-as-flooding-crisis-continues-20110110-19l56.html


LOVE,
JENNY

Impact Summer

Hey guys! I just got back from Byron Bay. We spent a week there for what was called "Impact Summer." A ton of backpackers come to Byron for New Years and so it was a time to really reach out to to the people there. During the day we set up sports by the beach. I was on the team that helped set up this volleyball tournament, which turned out to be a really big hit. We had a sound system and announced it at the beach, and tons of people came and joined. It was an awesome time to meet new people and there were tons of opportunities to talk to people about God and why we were there. 

At night we would set up a free barbecue in a park by the beach. Every night there were people performing there (some of the people from the M.A.D. school as well as some from my school) which was really awesome. People also shared testimonies and what God has been doing in their life. There were many other groups that were here for the Impact Summer, such as other YWAM schools in Australia, people from local churches, and even a team called Island Breeze from Fiji. The Fiji team performed with such an awesome dance the first night and shared their testimonies. 

God taught me so much this week. I was able to talk to tons of people about God and even pray with people. I actually spent my new years holding this sick girls hand and praying for her. That was so awesome. My friend and I were able to talk to her and her friends about YWAM and what God has been teaching us. They were really open and she even got our email addresses to stay in contact. My other friend and I were also able to pray for another girl, and it was her first time praying in her whole life. What a blessing. It was so awesome to be used by God and learn to really love people and see people how God does. 

Also, Merry Christmas! We were one big family here and that really helped from being away from home. It was definitely a Christmas I will never forget. haha I was even able to skype my family and play in our "white elephant" game. 

Happy New Years too! I know God has big plans for this next year :) and I am excited for us all to be a part of it. 

Love you and miss you guys. Thank you all for your support and encouragement. It means a lot to me.

Also, outreach update and prayer request:

We had a meeting, and we can't buy the tickets yet because not everyone has all of the money. The cheapest tickets we can find right now need all the money up front, and so ya... So please pray for God to provide, and for a good ticket opportunity. Because the exchange rate got so bad as well, I might end up needing more money depending on what tickets we can find. I am hoping I won't but we'll see. I am going in tomorrow for shots and they said we will have to buy this mosquito net thing for when we go to the jungle. So those will be extra costs. But I know God has it all under control and I'm confident that He will provide. 

Thank you so much for all your prayers! They mean a ton.

Here are some pictures:

Merry Christmas!

 

another snake sighting!

 

beautiful lighthouse @ the most Eastern pt. of Australia

amazing worship @ the lighthouse

video of when the Fiji dancers performed before they left