Outreach Overview & thoughts of Africa
Well, this one is going to be a long one, I am sorry about that!Outreach was.... amazing. But it was also a million other things too. it was super hard, it was streatching. it was good. it was fun, and wow! I went with 5 other students (Brad, Paul, Heidi, Ashley and Cherize) from Capers to Barnoldswick (Barlick for short). We worked in two sister, methodist chruches, and in schools. They split us into two teams of three, and we went into different schools. I was With Paul and Cherize in A secondary school called West Craven High Technology College. we taught RE (religious education) classes every day that lasted an hour. The best part of that was when we opened it up for questions. I mean, we got some silly questions like 'have you ever seen a drive by?' or 'have you ever been held at gun point?' which is how I guess europeaners view north america.... a place that supports violence 'for fun'. kinda sad, actually. but then we got good questions like 'why did you become christian?' 'how do you pray' 'how do you know that god is listening?' 'how do you know god is real?' and 'why do you believe in creation?'. it was super sweet, because the best part of it was that they actually cared and wanted to honestly know the answers. I thought that the kids here would be like the north american teenagers who are SO cynical and so hard and so worldly, but these kids were honestly searching for something more out of life, and it was AWESOME to go in, turn on the light, and show them what Jesus looks like in the 21st centry. God showed his faithfulness there hugely- he provided us with the answers to questions that we didn't think we could answer. and it was great, because if I couldn't answer a question, Paul or Cherize wold pick up, and that was awesome. Other than school work, we also did alot of things with the churches. We did girls/ boys brigades, cubs and beavers, a mom's and toddler's group, a 'young wives' group (aka the oldest people I have ever met in my entire life), youth clubs, as well as attending two services each sunday. Also, every night we went into 2-3 different houses (we were broken up into different groups) for tea. Seriously, those people fed us like... I don't even know. Some of them, I don't know what they were thinking. its a VERY english thing to put full plates in front of your guests when they sit down at the table, so half the time, my food was already portioned out to me, but I was there, often with the two boys who are both 6'4 and weigh literally twice as much as I do (we weighed ourselves one night), but they would give me the same amount of food as both of them. and its unpolite to not eat everything thats put in front of you, so I am sitting here, typing this with an extra thousand pounds on my body. no,... but seriously, I gained easily 5 pounds this last week.
Other fun times included our daily team nap times, lunch sandwich making times, and just the fun stuff that would happen in between. the 6 of us have SSOOOOO many inside jokes, you have no idea. we laughed alot this last week and that was fabulous! the first saturday we went waterfall climbing. yes, that is right, I, Laurel Baillie, the 5 foot wonder, climbed a waterfall. oh, and no, I did not go around, I got wet, I climbed up, and I conquered the waterfall. Honestly, I cried, I was so scared, but of course it felt SO good to get to the top and look down and say 'I climbed that!' I cried another day too.... We went to this man's house that he turned into a liecenced zoo, and we all know how much I like animals... NOT! well... we were inside his house, and first there were these two dogs, that looked more like wolves than dogs that proweled around sniffing us, then there were these two siamese cats that were SOOOOOOO creepy, not nice like the pictures look like, and then this man reaches into this aquarium and pulls out this two foot long blue tounged lizard and hands it to one of the boys and then non-chalontly says 'I'm just going to go and get the snake.' and well... I teared up, ran out of the house and hyperventilated for 5 minutes. it was the most tramatic experience of my life. SO scary! I hate animals. but that wasn't even the end, because in his back yard his had walibys, leemers, squirrel monkeys, parakeets, parrots, more dogs, skunks and rodents beyond belif. oh, and owels and turkeys and chickens and ducks and geese. terrible stuff.
The last weekend, there was some major spiritual stuff that went on, some huge spiritual attacks. I don't know details of all of it, but I do know that God deffenelty took advantage of my gift of intercession, and I spend a very long time on my knees praying over the weekend. it was super intense. Our team is so close now... everyone is getting kinda frustrated with us cause we always are laughing and talking with each other. I honestly miss the time I had with those guys. but it was so good.
Now, I am turning into Africa mode, because we only have 10 days left here, and thats unreal. I am going to miss these people SO much! I have just learned that we have a travel weekend in spring school, and another girl and I are talking about maybe taking a cheap flight over to Austria so that we can visit our friends over there, because there is 25 students from the hall doing spring school there. That might be fun. but its just in talking stages right now... nothing more. but gosh... these people have been like family to me these last 6 months, and seriously, it is hard to imagine the rest of life without them... I have made some serious life friends, and some of my best friends here. But I'm starting to think malaria medication, cloths for hot weather, storing the rest of my stuff, money conversion, and AH! its crazy. there is so much to think of. And I am spending one night in London before I go. That will be with my friends Heidi and Dee, and I think we are going to see about seeing Phantom that night, which will be super sweet. before we go though, we have to buy our tickets and book a hostel. which I guess is a bit stressful, but I'm not concerned too much. It will work out. I'm a little concerned about going from the hostel to the airport, but I'll leave in good time. once I check in and go through security I'll be fine. and I honestly don't mind spending a couple of hours just hanging out in the terminal. Heathrow is big enough that I can amuse myself for a while.
Anyways... this has been long enough, and I am rambling now, so I hope you all have been doing well! Saturday I am gong to York.... and then its only a matter of days till Africa!I love you guys! thanks for all of your prayers while I was on outreach!
Laurel
Other fun times included our daily team nap times, lunch sandwich making times, and just the fun stuff that would happen in between. the 6 of us have SSOOOOO many inside jokes, you have no idea. we laughed alot this last week and that was fabulous! the first saturday we went waterfall climbing. yes, that is right, I, Laurel Baillie, the 5 foot wonder, climbed a waterfall. oh, and no, I did not go around, I got wet, I climbed up, and I conquered the waterfall. Honestly, I cried, I was so scared, but of course it felt SO good to get to the top and look down and say 'I climbed that!' I cried another day too.... We went to this man's house that he turned into a liecenced zoo, and we all know how much I like animals... NOT! well... we were inside his house, and first there were these two dogs, that looked more like wolves than dogs that proweled around sniffing us, then there were these two siamese cats that were SOOOOOOO creepy, not nice like the pictures look like, and then this man reaches into this aquarium and pulls out this two foot long blue tounged lizard and hands it to one of the boys and then non-chalontly says 'I'm just going to go and get the snake.' and well... I teared up, ran out of the house and hyperventilated for 5 minutes. it was the most tramatic experience of my life. SO scary! I hate animals. but that wasn't even the end, because in his back yard his had walibys, leemers, squirrel monkeys, parakeets, parrots, more dogs, skunks and rodents beyond belif. oh, and owels and turkeys and chickens and ducks and geese. terrible stuff.
The last weekend, there was some major spiritual stuff that went on, some huge spiritual attacks. I don't know details of all of it, but I do know that God deffenelty took advantage of my gift of intercession, and I spend a very long time on my knees praying over the weekend. it was super intense. Our team is so close now... everyone is getting kinda frustrated with us cause we always are laughing and talking with each other. I honestly miss the time I had with those guys. but it was so good.
Now, I am turning into Africa mode, because we only have 10 days left here, and thats unreal. I am going to miss these people SO much! I have just learned that we have a travel weekend in spring school, and another girl and I are talking about maybe taking a cheap flight over to Austria so that we can visit our friends over there, because there is 25 students from the hall doing spring school there. That might be fun. but its just in talking stages right now... nothing more. but gosh... these people have been like family to me these last 6 months, and seriously, it is hard to imagine the rest of life without them... I have made some serious life friends, and some of my best friends here. But I'm starting to think malaria medication, cloths for hot weather, storing the rest of my stuff, money conversion, and AH! its crazy. there is so much to think of. And I am spending one night in London before I go. That will be with my friends Heidi and Dee, and I think we are going to see about seeing Phantom that night, which will be super sweet. before we go though, we have to buy our tickets and book a hostel. which I guess is a bit stressful, but I'm not concerned too much. It will work out. I'm a little concerned about going from the hostel to the airport, but I'll leave in good time. once I check in and go through security I'll be fine. and I honestly don't mind spending a couple of hours just hanging out in the terminal. Heathrow is big enough that I can amuse myself for a while.
Anyways... this has been long enough, and I am rambling now, so I hope you all have been doing well! Saturday I am gong to York.... and then its only a matter of days till Africa!I love you guys! thanks for all of your prayers while I was on outreach!
Laurel
posted by Laurel at 2:35 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home