Thanks for the Memories....

“I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now” Philippians 1:3-5

What an amazing five months it’s been! I’ve seen God do awesome things and He has prepared me for the next leg of my journey with Him. And you, my cloud of witnesses, my ‘partners in the gospel’ have been with me, (at least in spirit) through it all. Without you--without your love, encouragement, prayers and support, NONE of what I’ve learned and experienced in the last five months would have been possible. Thank you SO much! I praise God for each of you.

“So, Beth, you’ve just finished your Discipleship Training School… What Are You Going to Do Next?”

Well, I know one thing—I’m NOT going to Disney World! As great of an ad campaign as that question makes, it’s been less than a favorite of mine in the last five months. In fact, during lecture phase, there was a point when I told one of my classmates ‘the next time someone asks me what I’m doing after DTS, I’m going to punch them in the face!’ Rash words I DIDN’T act on, since the next person to ask was one of our staff who also happened to be our base director’s wife (pictured, below, shortly after I didn’t punch her):). We also half-joked that since our school theme was Psalm 27:14 ‘Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord’ we were all getting a special lesson in waiting on God for the direction of our future ministries.

In the end, God was both gracious to give me more direction and faithful to His desire to teach me to wait on Him. After months of prayer and seeking and prophecy (yup, actual prophecy from a woman with that spiritual gift...it was seriously amazing) God has led me to narrow my focus from youth (a pretty wide category, including everyone from 12-18) to troubled teens, specifically urban and/or addicted teens. And I’m still seeking and waiting on Him for the next step as I look into different ways He could use me to minister to that group. Please pray for continued patience and direction as I do that. I’ll keep you posted!

A Confession, A Testimony and A Request

I gave the following remarks at a community breakfast while I was in Amsterdam. We were instructed to bring our 'treasures' to give to the Lord in the presence of the community. God had been working on my heart about this for weeks, and when I asked Him what to bring to the breakfast, He asked me to share this with the group. Since I've been home, I've felt Him leading me to 'go public' to a larger degree, so I'm posting it here and also sending it to my prayer partners. Thanks for reading.

Around four years ago, my dad was diagnosed with cancer. It was in his throat and lymph nodes, so after surgery to remove as much of the growth as possible, he underwent chemotherapy and radiation. After that, he was in remission for something like 2 years before the lymph node that had been left behind in the original surgery was found to be cancerous. The cancer had spread down from his collarbone to his chest wall. He took two cycles of chemotherapy and was again declared to be in remission. A few months later, the doctors determined that the cancer had returned and was in his lungs, and so my dad started treatment again. Today, he is still in treatment, on the third or fourth (I've lost track) type of treatment since his last remission.

In all that time, I have just prayed, and asked for prayer, more times than I can count. I say 'just' not because prayer isn't sufficient--it is. But in Malachi, God accuses Israel of robbing Him of their tithes and offerings. I stand before you today to say that I have also robbed God--as Israel did not trust God enough to give Him things (such as livestock or first fruits) they were afraid they might need, I have not trusted God enough to stand up in a meeting like this and praise Him for what He's done. I've been afraid because when you tell people that God has intervened in a situation, they sometimes stop praying, and I was putting more value on the prayers of my friends than on the glory God was due.

So today, I want to offer God my praise--to say here, publicly, that He has healed my dad two times. He has preserved my dad's life every day for 4 years, when chemotherapy or radiation or their side effects could have taken his life. He has drawn me and both of my parents closer to Him through the struggle. Since I've been home, I've learned that God has done more than I even thought: my mom told me the other day that dad's doctors are literally amazed at all he has survived. My mom asked one doctor about the possible side effects of one of dad's treatments and the doctor said 'I don't know.' She asked how that could be, since he is the 'expert,' and he said 'because no one else has lived this long.' He knows of no one else who has been through the number of treatment cycles my dad has and is still able to go through more.

I want to join the psalmist in saying 'This (all of this) is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His steadfast love endures forever.'

Please praise God with me--He is an amazing, healing, powerful God. I also want to ask you to continue to pray with me. Dad is currently taking daily chemo and radiation treatments that are really hard on him. Please pray that the treatment will be effective, and that God will continue to give he and my mom what they need to walk through this with Him. Thank you!

Where the Green Grass Grows

Every Wednesday, we have what we call 'Mission Possible Day.' After we have our team worship and sharing, we spend some time seeking God for what He would have us do that day, and then we get ready, go out and do it. A few Wednesdays ago, when we were listening for God's instructions, God showed me a picture of a baby lying in the grass. The grass was really green, like golf-course grass, so when I told everyone what I 'heard' I said 'green grass and a baby.' Which, admittedly, sounded a bit funny, since most grass is green, and for which I received a fair amount of teasing, but hey, that's ok. :) Once we'd all shared, we decided, based on what I heard and what a few of the others on the team had heard, that we would spend the day in three locations: Dam Square, Centraal Station, and Ooster Park (the latter was where the 'green grass' came in, in case you didn't catch that :). We would worship and possibly talk to people about God's love in the first two locations, and in the third we would look around for a baby in the grass and go from there. (I was really feeling a bit silly at this point, but it all works out, I promise :))

We started at Dam Square, where Tika and Nini met two guys who were juggling. Tika asked them to let her try, and they struck up a conversation. The rest of us spoke briefly with the people sitting around us as we sang worship songs. We prayed with the juggling guys and then headed to Centraal Station, and from there to Oosterpark.


The sometimes awkward thing about Mission Possible Day is that if you are the only one to hear a certain thing from God, our leader (Kyunghee) turns everything over to you once you come to doing it. We got to the park, had an amazing Doner Kebab lunch (basically, Gyros...not sure why they don't call them that, but that's what they were, and they were GOOD), and then Kyunghee looked at me and said 'what now?' I stuttered something about walking around the park looking for a baby in the grass, and off we went, doing our best not to look like stalkers or kidnappers. When we finally came upon a woman, lying in the grass playing peek-a-boo with her baby, I almost pretended I didn't see her because I was feeling, by this point, beyond foolish. What kind of weirdo goes baby-hunting in the grass? But, I figured since the whole point of the day was to do WHATEVER God tells us, I'd better take a deep breath and go for it. Besides, if I chickened out, I'd never know for sure if I'd heard God.

I grabbed my friend Tamika and we walked over to the woman. I told her we were missionaries and that we felt that God had told us to come to this park and pray for her baby and ask if she'd mind if we did. She seemed a little wary at first, but she agreed. Once we had prayed and she was satisfied that we weren't going to run off with him, she really warmed up to us and we chatted with her for a while, all about her life and how she'd gone to NYC to dance and gotten pregnant and come home to Amsterdam to have her son. She told us she hopes to dance again someday, but that family was more important right now. We listened and did our best to encourage her. Before the end of our conversation, she let us pray for her, too.

After 15 or 20 minutes, we invited her to come to our church the following Sunday and left to rejoin the rest of the team and fill them in on what had happened. I no longer felt foolish, but instead grateful to God for speaking to me and giving me the courage to follow His lead. During lecture phase, we learned that the Hebrew word for hear, 'Sh'ma'(or something like that :)) actually means 'to hear AND obey,' meaning that if we don't obey God's direction, we haven't really heard it. We also talked about the fact that a lot of times, we don't know if we've actually heard from God unless we step out in faith and obedience and see what happens.

As I write this, we have only 4 more days in Amsterdam and a little over 10 in my DTS. Please join me in praying that my teammates and I would truly HEAR (Sh'ma) from God regarding the next step He has laid out for us on our journey with Him. Thank you so much for your encouragement and prayers as we've travelled this section of the road.

A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich...I mean, Beth Barthle

So, what's a typical day like for Team Amsterdam? Well, there is no typical day...we have a weekly schedule, but every day is different. So, I've picked Friday, because its nearest and dearest to my heart (ok, because it happened yesterday) to give you a glimpse of life on outreach in Amsterdam. Enjoy!

6:00 am - My alarm goes off. It takes me a few seconds to realize what it is, and to remember, with my sleep-fogged brain, how to turn it off. No worries, though, my roommate (shown, awake and with me on the train, to the right :)) could sleep through an earthquake (she tells us regularly that she hopes Jesus will come back during the daytime...otherwise, she might miss the whole 'last trumpet' thing), so she doesn't notice. I head for the shower room (the toilet and shower are separate here...a blessing when sharing an apartment with 6 people) to get ready for my day.

7:00 am - I grab my bible and notebook and head to the living room for quiet time. Most days I spend this time reviewing the songs in the worship set, praying for the worship time and reading a few verses in Isaiah before breakfast. Today, because we'll be heading to the Tabernacle after breakfast for community prayer time instead of having our own team worship and devotional time, I have the luxury of spending the entire time reading, a good thing because Isaiah is waxing especially deep and prophetic today (and I thought it would be a nice, poetic feel-good choice for my outreach reading :)).

8:00 am - Breakfast. The whole team gathers, with varying degrees of alertness, to share a quick bite (a mug of granola & yogurt along with a piece of bread covered in nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread) and peanutbutter for me...hmmm, like a reese's peanut butter cup for breakfast)

8:30 am - We leave for the prayer time at the Tabernacle. The meeting starts at 9:00, but Raphael, Tamika and I are helping with worship, so we need to be a bit early to run through things and pray before everyone arrives.

9:00 am - Community Prayer at the Tabernacle. This week we are praying for the church in Amsterdam. Several of the base leadership as well as this week's speaker, as we hear this morning, have heard from God that revival is coming to the Netherlands, so we pray that the churches and pastors will be unified and ready to see God move and to be part of what He is doing.

We pray using the 'harp and bowl' model, (which I won't pretend to be an expert on, so google 'Harp and Bowl'or 'Kansas City International House of Prayer'if you want the real scoop) which mixes worship with prayer, so we have 8 songs ready for the morning which will be interspersed with times of praying from the Bible and singing 'sentences' together. Praying the Bible, besides being an awesome and powerful way to pray (speaking God's own words back to Him), helps us to stay together, since not everyone speaks English. One reads the scripture reference in English, then reads the verse and prays through it in his own language. The sentences are simple phrases, most often started by the worship team, that the group picks up and sings together for a few moments, usually relating to what was just prayed. For instance, if someone prays from John 17, that we may be one as Jesus and the Father are one, we might all sing 'Lord, make us one' together for a minute or so. That way, among other things, we all participate verbally in most of the prayers that are prayed. The prayer time today is very good, and the presence of God felt as we worship and seek Him together.

11:00 am - Coffee Break (reason number 3,775 why I love the Dutch culture). After the prayer meeting, we adjourn next door to the Cleft (YWAM's ministry in the Red Light District) for coffee and cookies. Several outreach teams have arrived this week from the US, so we spend some time meeting and chatting with them before heading back through the district and up the endless stairs (we live on the fifth floor of Samaritan's Inn, the YWAM building which houses our hosting team, Ethnos) to our apartment. Christiane and I stop off on the second floor to check on our team's laundry. The machines are different than we're used to and my blue and yellow socks are now just blue, but hey, they're clean. :)

12:30 pm - After we haul the laundry upstairs and take a few minutes to relax, it's time for lunch. Generally we have sandwiches, supplemented by whatever might be left over from dinner the night before. Today, I have a fabulous butter and cheese sandwich and leftover mashed potatoes.

1:20 pm - Three of us-me, Christiane and Tamika, leave for ladies' ministry at the Cleft. The Cleft sends out workers with tea, coffee and cookies on Thursday nights to the ladies in the windows and on the street in the Red Light District, to build relationships and share the love of Jesus. While we're here, we're helping them start the same ministry in another part of Amsterdam. There are 34 windows on one side street in our location-a fraction of the number in the RLD, but their occupants need God's love, too, so we board the train after praying and packing our hand cart and basket with everything we'll need. Last week, our first week, no one opened their doors to us, but we pray that as they come to recognize us, things will be different.

3:00 pm - After a 10 minute train ride and short walk, we arrive at our spot. It's my day to walk with Edna, our staff leader, so we leave Tamika and Christiane under some trees on the other side of the street to watch, pray and wait. The first few ladies smile and wave us on, but finally one girl, Andrea* (not her real name...I've changed all the ladies' names to protect their privacy), accepts our offer of free coffee. She asks what kind of coffee it is, and I begin to feel a connection with this fellow coffee lover. We tell her, and she is impressed - apparently whoever does the buying for the Cleft has good taste in Dutch coffee. I try to make a mental note of the name, but decide that other matters are more pressing and join in the short, chatty conversation she and Edna are having. After a few moments, we tell Andrea we'll see her next week and return to the sidewalk.

After a few more refusals, Tia invites us in. She and Maria, the lady in the window next to hers, speak Spanish, so I try to look as loving, caring and understanding as the One who sent me and pray silently--that Edna will have the right words to encourage these women and that God will touch their hearts. Tia invites us behind her window and tells Edna, through tears, about her son who is in jail for drug possession. She is working to pay his legal fees. Edna listens, comforts, encourages and prays. When they are done praying, Edna talks to Tia some more and ends up leading her in giving her life to Jesus. We leave Tia with Edna's number and the promise of our prayers and a return visit next week. We step out onto the sidewalk praising God who not only opened up the windows to us this week, but opened a woman's heart to Him.

We continue down the street, and one more lady, Toni, accepts some lemonade and seems open to talking to us again next week. After retracing our steps, looking for women who may be working the second story windows (we see no one today), we share the exciting news with Tamika and Christiane and board the train for home.

5:30 pm - Raphael and Kyunghee have cooked dinner for us while we were out, so we arrive just in time to pray and eat together. Once we've eaten, we go our seperate ways to recharge and prepare for the evening's activities. I spend some time journaling about the awesome time we spent in the ladies' ministry and then grab a quick 30 minute nap before it's time to hit the road again.

8:00 pm - We begin our walk to De Poort for the homeless ministry. Usually, we would have another half hour to rest, but the Salvation Army contacted Rebecca, who heads the homeless ministry, today to tell her their truck won't be coming to serve dinner tonight. Since then, Rebecca has gone to the store to buy bread and cheese and called to ask us to come early to make sandwiches to supplement the tea, coffee, cake and bananas we usually hand out. We could use the extra sleep, but are grateful that we will get an extra hour with the guys...usually, we wait until the Salvation Army van leaves, around 9:30, before we can go outside. The crowd is a bit lighter than usual today, as word has gotten around that the van is not coming, and hasn't quite gotten around that we will be making up the lack.

It takes Christiane and I a few minutes to recognize Jay* (not his real name), the man we prayed with the week before--he had told us he was suffering from depression, and as we prayed, he started weeping and fell over on his side on the park bench. He reached out for our hands, which we gave, and Christiane first prayed for him then led him in praying himself, asking God to heal his heart and be a part of his life. When Christiane's English failed her (Her native language is Portugese, and she usually does quite well with English, but it was late, we were tired and the situation was pretty intense) I took over for a while. When we were done praying, Jay seemed lighter and more at peace.

Today, a week later, he seems even better, smiling and joking with another man who shares his bench. We go over to talk to him and he assures us that he hasn't forgotten us or our prayers the week before, and we tell him that we haven't forgotten him either and have been praying for him all week. He thanks us and says our prayers have been effective. Christiane steps away for a minute (we are required to work in pairs), but I feel comfortable with Jay and his friend and don't worry too much about her absence until a new man, who is drunk and very friendly, joins our conversation. His idea of personal space and mine are a bit different, and he steps forward and I back until I am several steps away from the bench and outside of my comfort zone. As we chat, I try to keep the conversation centered on God as I sneak glances around him, trying to make eye contact with any of my teammates. They are all engaged in conversation, until I finally lock eyes with Tamika and have to outwardly repress my relief when she starts walking my way. We continue to chat for a few minutes until Rebecca calls us over to help pack up and head inside.

11:00 pm - As our twenty or so minutes of debrief comes to a close, Rebecca reminds us again that we are to stay in pairs, so that we don't find ourselves in the uncomfortable spot I did earlier in the evening. We pray, gather our things and head back to Samaritan's Inn for the night.

12:00 am - Friday is officially over. I turn out the overhead light, settle myself on my mattress on the floor, and then set my alarm by the light of Christiane's bedside lamp. I'll need some extra time in the morning to pick out the worship set, since I didn't find any time during the day today. I think back over the day and say a quick prayer of thanks--it's been a full day, but an amazing one. I have been blessed in our worship and prayer at the Tabernacle, had the privilege of being used by God in the lives of 4 ladies behind the windows, seen His continued work in the life of my homeless friend, and been protected from a possible bad situation with another. God is good, and I can't wait to see what He'll do tomorrow.


Please pray with me:

+That God will bless Tia, encourage her in her new faith in Him, and miraculously provide funding for her son's legal fees so that she can leave the windows and go back to her country and family.

+That Andrea, Maria and Tori will be open to speak with us again when we go back to the windows next Friday, and that God will give Edna and whoever goes with her His love, compassion and words to share with them.

+That more ladies will open their windows to us and their hearts to God as we visit them every week.

+That God will bless Jay and continue to heal his heart and strengthen his faith in Him, and that He will provide Jay with a way to leave the streets.

+That God will equip us as we minister to the homeless each week, giving us the strength, love and compassion as well as the boldness, understanding and words we need to encourage them and share God's love with them.

+That God will give us favor and boldness as we share His love through relationship evangelism on the bridges in the Red Light District. Specifically, pray for favor with the Police in the area--we were asked to leave last week because our leader was playing guitar and singing worship songs. The Cleft (through whom this ministry is run) has already researched to be sure that what we do is, in fact, legal, but we chose to submit to authority rather than cause a scene.


Praise God with Me

++For what He has done in Tia and Jay's lives, pursuing them through us and drawing them into His kingdom (Yea God!)

++For the increasing success of our ministry to the ladies behind the windows

++For His continuing provision for the needs of my teammates--someone anonymously gave Christiane a coat this week (it's colder here than we thought it would be, and Christiane did not bring a warm coat).

Welkom En Amsterdam

Though the view from our bedroom window is somewhat less than welcoming as I write this--rainy day #8 of the 10 we've been in Holland--our team has begun, at last, to feel at home here. I even found my own way home from the grocery store a minute ago (quite a feat for this directionally challenged woman, regardless of locale). We spent our first week here adjusting to newness on almost every side--new climate (cool and rainy), new time zone, new culture and language (we had our first, and probably only, formal dutch lesson last week-we can now greet, thank, bless and offer to pray for the people we meet on the street or in the grocery store), new food (my favorite : )), and new roles to name a few.

Before we left the states, God spoke to our leader, Kyunghee, and told her 'this outreach won't be what you've planned'--an exciting, if also unsettling, thing to hear when setting out for a two month outreach. While the complete fulfillment of that remains to be seen, we've already experienced God doing some shifting around of our plans. Even before we left the base (as I mentioned in a previous update), we said goodbye to two of our teammates, who left to be married. A happy, but still unexpected, change.

When we arrived at De Poort, YWAM Amsterdam's training and housing center, God had another shift in store for us. We were blessed, just before leaving Richmond, to finally resolve our housing issues (also mentioned in a previous update)-we planned to stay first at De Poort for a month, and then move across Amsterdam to stay in the apartment of a friend of Kyunghee's for our final month. It wasn't ideal, but we were thankful, after all the uncertainty and struggle of the months leading up to outreach, to have a place to lay our heads.

The shift came as we waited to put our luggage in De Poort's freight elevator before going upstairs to our rooms. The base director walked past and greeted Kyunghee, as many other staff had done already that day (Kyunghee served with YWAM Amsterdam for many years before moving to Richmond). He was on his way to a meeting, but took long enough to say hello and offer us the use of his apartment while he and his family were on holiday--from the next day until the last week of our outreach! God has provided for us over and above what we expected (thank you for your prayers!)--not only will we pay about half of what we would have payed to say at De Poort, our new home is located on the top floor of the building housing ouir hosting team, Ethnos, and is a five minute walk from the Red Light District, where we plan to do much of our ministry. We're also directly across from Centraal Station, so buses and trains to everywhere we want to go beyond walking distance (we're doing a lot of walking!) are just meters from our front door. We also have the use of their kitchen, dining room and living room, providing cheaper meals and a private and comfy place to have our team worship and meetings.

So our second change in plans was a huge blessing (Yea God!). Some of the changes that have followed have been a bit harder to swallow, but we have had to trust God that they will also be for the best, even when we don't understand them. As Kyunghee met with the different ministry heads our first week, we were a bit discouraged to see door after door close--the homeless ministry is adequately, if not over, staffed; the ministry to the ladies behind the windows in the Red Light District (RLD from here on out, to save time and space : )) does not usually take volunteers for less than 3 months (we are here for 2) and our host team is majoritively on holiday (making opportunities to minister with them a bit limited). But, as He always does, God has been opening new doors and providing new direction--a different homeless ministry can use our help; the ladies ministry is praying about starting a new work with ladies outside the RLD (there are windows all over the city, the RLD is just the most populous and famous) which we may be able to participate in, since we'll be laying groundwork for others who will be the long-term workers; we've built a relationship with the Tabernacle team, who run YWAM's 24-7 prayer house in the RLD-we planned to spend some time there, but instead have been able to spend more and even help lead some of the prayer times (more on that in a minute : )).

God has been changing my personal plans for outreach, too. One of my major goals for this time was to hear from God what He would have me do after we return to the states, but as we've been here and seeking God for what HE wants, He's made it clear to me that He's called me to Amsterdam NOW, and that I need to focus on that calling and leave the other for Him to make clear in His way and time (more than a bit of a challenge for a planner like yours truly, but when God says 'lay off'...). And He may already be making it clear--I, who was amazed to hear God say 'youth ministry' last year instead of 'worship/music ministry', who came to DTS to prepare to work with teenagers, am finding myself being taught by God about leading worship. It started in lecture phase, when I was asked to be the DTS worship leader. Then, I was given the opportunity to sing backup for the base worship leader at our weekly gathering, then finally the huge, if a bit daunting, opportunity to lead base worship the week she was on vacation. Now, on outreach, I am leading my team EVERY DAY (quite different from the 1-2 times a week I was doing in Richmond), and am also learning a lot from our work with the Tabernacle team--they use a model called 'harp and bowl' prayer that mixes worship and prayer and incorporates 'prophetic singing' the singing out of a phrase or sentence during worship that is then taken up by everyone else, literally 'singing a new song' to God. Not to mention the different styles and methods of worship I've been exposed to as I've been around different 'brands' of Christian represented in YWAM--from drawing/painting and the formal, reverent beauty of the Messianic synagogue to more charismatic shouting, jumping and dancing.

What will come of all of these shifts and surprises, only God knows at this point. What I do know is that I'm so thankful to be following God on this journey to Amsterdam and beyond, and thankful for you, my friends, who through your prayers, encouragement and support, are making it all possible. So I'll close by exercising some of my new-found Dutch skills: Gods Zegen! (God bless you)

Praise God with me:
+For meeting and EXCEEDING our housing needs
+For providing, in the days shortly following our arrival in Amsterdam, ALL of our remaining outreach fees and airfare
+For opening new doors for us to minister in Amsterdam

Please pray with me:
+That we would continue to be led by God as we endeavor to serve Him in Amsterdam-and that we would hear Him especially clearly on Wednesdays, the day we have set aside for what we've named 'Mission Possible'-spending the morning in listening prayer and the afternoon doing whatever we feel God has led us to in that time
+That God would equip, lead and encourage our leader, Kyunghee as she makes decisions for the team
+That God would use us in the lives of the homeless, prostitutes and others He sends our way, and that He would be glorified in all we say and do
+That God would watch between the members of our team and cause us to 'increase and abound in love for one another and for all' (1 Thess 3:12) that our love and unity would make us not only more effective, but a witness to the people around us

To Know God and Make Him Known

I can’t believe the lecture phase of my Discipleship Training School is over…but regardless of my incredulity, the fact remains. We had closing ceremonies on Friday —Graduation for the ELC (English Language and Culture) and PCYM (Principles of Children and Youth Ministries) and Commissioning for us (DTS) because we have not yet gone on outreach (more on that in a minute).

My school leader asked me on Wednesday to prepare a 3 minute speech for the Graduation/Commissioning on Friday. My first thought was ‘God, are you kidding me? I have SO many things to do this week!’ Not only was this the last week of classes, with all the obligatory final assignments, I had the opportunity to lead base worship on Monday morning, I had a work-duty project that needed to be wrapped up, worship lyric and chord books to finish and print for our team to take on outreach, a few of our travel arrangements to finalize, as well as packing all of my things and cleaning my part of our bedroom. All of this was running through my mind as I sent the brief and somewhat irreverent prayer I just shared with you up to God. He graciously responded by almost immediately giving me direction on the speech, as well as several of what would later become my main points. By the end of the day, when the seeds God planted in my mind had had time to germinate, I sat down to write the speech and finished it in record time. Not only did it come quickly, but in another unprecedented blessing, it was actually 15 seconds short of the allotted time. Usually, I not only wrestle for far too long with writing the speech (or article, email, text message…whatever : )), but end up with way too much material and have to spend an inordinate amount of time whittling it down before it is ready for public consumption. The point here is that, once again, God gave me what I needed to do what He was asking me to do. He is good!

Here’s part of what I shared with my fellow students, teachers, staff and guests on Friday:
“When people asked me about DTS before I came here, I told them that I’d be spending 12 weeks learning in a classroom before going on outreach. Now that we’re at the end of those 12 weeks, I have to say that I was not completely right about that—though we did learn a lot in the classroom over the last few months, some of our most memorable lessons were learned outside the classroom.

Our first lesson began before we ever went to class. As we settled in to our rooms, we began to learn about living in community. Over the months that followed, we learned that though community living can be a challenge, it is also a blessing—it teaches us to both give and receive grace and mercy. On Niko, we learned to give up our rights, to persevere, and to depend on God. Our seed project taught us about unity-what it is, what it isn’t, and how God uses it to affect those around us before we even say a word. And as we have waited on God for the funds to go on outreach, we have learned patience and trust in Him as we watched Him slowly but surely bring our team debt down from $39,000 to under $2000.

…Bertha Swarr told us the other day that we, as DTS, are here to learn and then live the YWAM motto: ‘To know God and make Him known.’ If this is the case (and I believe it is), then our DTS has been a success.

God has used these twelve weeks to bring us to know Him—to deepen and sometimes challenge and correct our understanding of Him. Some of us have learned to see Him as gentle, loving and accepting where we once saw Him as angry and vengeful. Some of us have rejoiced to learn that He cannot be manipulated. Some have discovered that He is always in control. We’ve all seen Him as our provider. We’ve seen Him in and through our circumstances as well as in each other.

God has also used these twelve weeks to teach us how to ‘make Him known’-both by reaching out to the lost and by living our lives in a way that will draw others to Him.

So as we go our separate ways over the next few days, please pray for the DTS team as we follow God to Amsterdam, seeking ‘To Know God and Make Him Known’ and to put what He has taught us into practice.”

So I’ll wrap this up, my last pre-Amsterdam post (I hope to post once or twice while we’re gone, but the base we’ll be staying at, from what we’ve heard, has 2 student computers and multiple schools going on while we’ll be there (hence more competition for said computers), so I’m not going to hold my breath : )), by asking you to do the same. Please pray for us. I’ve listed what I perceive to be our needs below, but please pray as God leads. Thank you for being faithful on this first leg of my new journey with God to support me in prayer, encouragement, and by being my witnesses (by reading these crazy updates of mine : )). I’m so thankful for each one of you!

Praise God with me:
+That he has brought our team balance down from $39,000 to less than $2,000


+For Jesse and Macy (two of our teammates, who will not go with us to Amsterdam)’s marriage on graduation day (picture above-they're the ones in white, go figure ; )). It was beautiful and went off without a hitch. So cool to see God send them out to their own ‘outreach’ (aka married life) on the same day He sent us out on ours.


+For all He’s taught us and done in our lives during DTS, and for all He will continue to do in Amsterdam

Please pray with me:
+For safe travel to Amsterdam (we fly out Monday 6/30 at 11:00 am)

+For adjustment to Amsterdam-jet lag, new surroundings, new food, and new principalities and powers which will not be pleased that we’ve come (Eph 6:12)

+That God will equip and help me to fulfill my roles as outreach co-leader and worship leader, as well as outreach team member, in a manner worthy of Him.

+ That God will equip and bless my teammates (Christiane (Brazil), Tamika (Chicago), Raphael (Germany), Teniqua (Kansas), our staff leader (Kyunghee (Korea) pictured above, with Raphael and me in the back row, Tamika, Christiane and Teniqua in the front, and Kyunghee, unfortunately, behind the camera) and me as we minister in Amsterdam. Here’s what we’ll be doing:
--Relationship ministry & evangelism with the window prostitutes in the Red Light District (girls only)
--Relationship ministry & evangelism with the homeless men living in the Red Light district (Raphael only)
--Relationship ministry & evangelism in the night clubs
--Evangelistic Drama
--Prayer Team ministry (we’ll go out into the city and ask residents and tourists if we can pray for/with them)
--Unplanned ministry-once or twice a week, we’ll spend the morning in prayer, seeking God for what He would have us do that day. Then, we’ll go and do it!
In all of this, but especially the last, please pray that we will hear God clearly and obey Him, that He will grow us and draw us to Him, and that He will use us to further His kingdom in Amsterdam.

Hakani

Hello Everyone,
You've probably gotten an email or facebook invitation from me about this by now-at least, I hope I got everyone! I'm pasting some more information and some sample letters below for anyone who feels led to join me in this. I love you all and am so thankful for you!
in Jesus,
Beth

YouTube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbjRU6_Zj0U
Website: Hakani.org

Emails:
Email your approval of Muwaji's Law to:
Arlindo Chinaglia (President of the Congress) dep.arlindochinaglia@camara.gov.br

Pompeo De Mattos (President of the Congress' Human Rights and Minorities Committee) dep.pompeodemattos@camara.gov.br

Tarso Genro (Minister of Justice) Gabinetemj@mj.gov.br
US Ambassador in Brazil (address to follow)
Brazilian Ambassador to US (address to follow)
NOTE: you can use the letter templates below to write your email, or you can compose one of y our own :)

Sample Emails/Letters:
TO: YOUR GOVENRMENT EMBASSY IN BRAZIL

Dear ,

Recently I have become aware that children are buried alive in Brazil today. Infanticide is a common traditional practice performed by many indigenous groups. The Brazilian government seems to support this injustice.

Deputy Francisco Praciano (PT-AM) declared publicly: "The Declaration of Human Rights and The Constitution does not apply to the Indian. It just doesn't." How can the government of Brazil keep this position that flies in the face of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international agreements?

It also has been brought to my attention that many indigenous people in Brazil want to stop this practice. Unfortunately the Brazilian government stops them. They intimidate individuals and groups that want to save the children's lives from certain death. In addition the government has put culture over the value of a life. I find this simply unacceptable.

It seems to me that they are treating the indigenous people like some exotic animals. They do not have the right of self-determination or the right of residency. This amounts to a Brazilian national shame.

However there is a glimmer of hope. Congresswoman Janete Rocha Pieta (email: dep.janetrochapieta@camara.gov.br) has submitted Muwaji's Law (Law Project 1057/2007). This will give protection for the indigenous children against infanticide as well as give human rights to the indigenous people.

I ask you. Please learn about Muwaji's Law (www.hakani.org as well as voiceforlife.blogspot.com) and exert pressure on the State Department to engage in discussion about Muwaji's Law in your bi-lateral relationship. It comes up for discussion in June 2008.
Thank you for your consideration

Sincerely,

(Your Name)


EMAIL TO: THE BRAZILIAN EMBASSY IN YOUR COUNTRY

Dear ,

Recently I have become aware that children are buried alive in Brazil today. Infanticide is a common traditional practice performed by many indigenous groups. Your government seems to support this injustice.

Deputy Francisco Praciano (PT-AM) declared publicly: "The Declaration of Human Rights and The Constitution does not apply to the Indian. It just doesn't." How can the government of Brazil keep this position that flies in the face of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international agreements?

It also has been brought to my attention that many indigenous people in Brazil want to stop this practice. Unfortunately your government stops them. They intimidate individuals and groups that want to save the children's lives from certain death. In addition the government has put culture over the value of a life. I find this simply unacceptable.

It seems to me that you are treating the indigenous people like some exotic animals. They do not have the right of self-determination or the right of residency. This amounts to a Brazilian national shame.

However there is a glimmer of hope. Congresswoman Janete Rocha Pieta (email: dep.janetrochapieta@camara.gov.br) has submitted Muwaji's Law (Law Project 1057/2007). This will give protection for the indigenous children against infanticide as well as give human rights to the indigenous people.

I ask you. Please learn about Muwaji's Law (www.hakani.org as well as voiceforlife.blogspot.com) and exert pressure on your legislators to pass the bill. It comes up for discussion in June 2008.

Thank you for your consideration

Sincerely,

(Your Name)

The Big River

We went on Niko last weekend. Niko is the Greek word for ‘overcome’ (and the word from which Nike gets its name, for you trivia buffs out there). We overcame a LOT. What, you ask? Well, I can’t tell you that, or I’d have to kill you. : ) (Ok, it’s not QUITE that strict, but they do ask us to keep the Niko secrets so that people who participate in the program after us can have the same experience-and part of it is not ever knowing what’s coming next.) What I CAN tell you is that it is a great program and I would highly recommend it. As you’re about to read, God really used it to work in my life. And, from the stories I’ve been hearing since we got back, in everyone else’s lives as well.

I was actually doubting, halfway into the weekend, if God would be able to teach me anything through Niko—I was blessed to go to the mountains in Colorado with DSL (the youth group I left to come here) last summer, and this trip was shaping up to be similar to that one. I was actually thinking, by the middle of day 2, how far I’d come since then—I only had to stop my team once so I could breathe (it seemed I had to stop constantly last summer) after a steep climb; I was enjoying the beauty of God’s creation around me, instead of focusing solely on putting one foot in front of the other and I was even able to look outside of myself at times to encourage my teammates. Sure, I was tired, but nothing like Colorado.

Toward the end of our hike, we came to a river. The crossing looked pretty easy, which was good because my oh-so-experienced feet were starting to kill me. As I crossed, though, I slipped off a rock and got my boots completely filled with water. I got to the other side and found myself trying not to cry-what happened to my triumphant, if tiring, hike? I held it in and we started back on the trail. I told God that I would be fine as long as He didn’t make us cross the river again (famous last words, anyone?). When we turned a corner on the trail and saw the river, wider and faster and deeper than the last time, looming up ahead of us, I was just SURE the trail would turn downstream until it came to a bridge. After all, it was getting dark and I had just prayed, so surely God was going to spare me, right? Not when He had something to teach me, apparently-when we got down to the bank, we could see where the trail picked up directly on the other side of the river.

At this point, it was all I could do to keep from sitting down on the trail and crying. I did sit down, but I focused on taking my boots and socks off to prepare for the crossing. While I was doing this, one of my teammates, Jesse (who is also in DTS-directly left of me in the picture), was wading out and testing rocks. He came back and reported that it would be rough and we’d get really wet, but he thought we could do it. We tried to confer as a team, but I was working too hard to maintain control to be able to speak, so he reported our decision to the staff. They replied that this was not a safe place to cross-they would allow it, if we insisted, but they did not advise it and encouraged us to find another way. Controlling my tears became even harder at this point-I was tired, hungry, sore, cold and now, afraid-I had been assuming that everything we would face, while difficult and uncomfortable, would be, in reality, risk-free (a silly assumption, since nothing in life, especially in the wilderness, is completely safe, but there it is). Needless to say, I was even less help to my team now as we discussed our options. In the end, Jesse and our other male team member, Byrd (from Thailand, here for the PCYM School-left of Jesse in the picture) decided to scout a route to a log bridge we could see a few hundred feet upstream. I had discouraged this route earlier-I had slipped off of a similar bridge the summer before, and though I wasn’t hurt, just shaken, knew the likelihood and the terror of feeling your feet slip out from under you. The water under the bridge last summer had been calm and shallow-this was deep and rushing, with more than a few ugly rocks waiting to greet anyone who fell. But, since we really had no other viable options, the log bridge it was.

Byrd went ahead to test the bridge, and Jesse started leading us upstream. The river bank was steep and rocky, and as I followed him, my foot slipped and I almost fell. That small drop, in light of the possibility of a larger one in my future, was the last straw-I broke down and sobbed like a child for at least a minute. I can still see Jesse’s face, unsure of what to do with this grown woman weeping and holding on to a tree root coming out of the bank. I motioned to the girl behind me to go around and told him I just needed a few seconds to get myself together. By the time he came back for me I was calmer and ready to go on. I will never forget his compassion and patience as he led me up the bank, nor that of Byrd as he talked me across the bridge. I got to the other side safe, tired and incredibly humbled. I apologized to my teammates for abandoning them. They graciously accepted, and we continued our hike.

My experience by ‘the big river,’ as I’ve come to think of it, was good on a bunch of levels. Of course, it wasn’t good in the moment-but God used it to burst the pride-bubble I’d been inflating all day, about ‘how far I’d come.’ He used it to teach me to allow others to help me-something I’m not great at, as a recovering achiever and perfectionist. He showed me that being vulnerable and weak before people does not always result in rejection, but sometimes compassion and deeper friendship. And He showed me, in the hours following when I did not spiral into the pits of shame where I would have been a year ago had this happened to me, how far HE has brought me on the road to emotional and spiritual health. Yea God!

Please praise God with me:
+For an awesome and growth-filled Niko for me, my class and team mates.
+For all but roughly $1500 of our lecture fees being paid-I wish I had time to fill you in on all the details, but God is so good! Only $22,000 of outreach fees and airfare to go!
+That He has given me the opportunity to be the student leader for our outreach to Amsterdam, and for the encouragement and practice He gave me this weekend on Niko
+For my friend Bobby All (Nashville)’s progress on the road to recovery (he’s been in the hospital for several weeks)

Please pray with me:
+For God to provide the remainder of our outreach fees and airfare-He graciously provided mine through you, my supporters, before I left, but as a team we still owe around $22,000, roughly $10,000 of which is due to the travel agent by June 10.
+For God to equip and prepare us individually and corporately for our outreach to Amsterdam, especially to unify us as a team (we have some interpersonal conflicts growing-we need God to nip them in the bud and give us His love for each other)
+For God to provide housing for the first part of our outreach to Amsterdam (as far as I’ve heard, we’re still double booked for the first month)

God is SO Good!

I’m here to tell you that God is good. He was good before the story I’m about to relate, and He’d still be good if it hadn’t happened, but this is just one of the many instances through which I’ve witnessed His goodness lately.

I had a crazy weekend. To make a long story short, I had two days worth of homework to do and chose to spend what I thought would be part of my day Saturday but which turned in to all of my day Saturday, helping some friends. Sounds like a good, Christian thing to do, right? Except I forgot one major step-ask God first! Just because a thing is worth doing doesn’t mean I’m supposed to do it. (This has been ‘Life Lessons from The Overbooked DTS Student’) God is good and used my mistake to teach me that lesson and to give me practice, the next day when they needed more help, at saying ‘no’ even when I think it will make people unhappy with me (a tough thing for us people pleasers).

The point of all of this is, I started Sunday with two days of work to do and only one day left in which to do it. I spent the whole day Sunday and part of Monday morning getting my work done. I reached a point of utter frustration and panic around 10 pm and walked down the hill in front of the Inn (you can see part of it in the picture on my first post) to meet with God for a few minutes of crying and pleading for help before I resumed my labors. When I finally crashed into bed in the wee hours of Monday morning, I was pretty sure of 2 things – I was going to need one HUGE cup of coffee to get me going in the morning, and I was STILL going to struggle to stay awake in class. My biggest fear, though, was that I would wake up with a migraine or develop one at some point in the day, from the stress and lack of sleep. And my Monday schedule left no room for napping-be at class an hour early for worship practice (to which I had to walk, because I had just made a no-driving-in-good-weather proclamation to my classmates, to save gas and prepare for our wilderness challenge weekend-how much I regretted my burst of responsibility at that point, I don’t think I need to say :)), help lead worship, 3.5 hours of lecture, walking home for lunch, 2 hours of work duty, dinner and walking back for 2 more hours of class before I could even think about returning to my bed.

With all of this swirling in my brain, I prayed again as I finally laid down for that catnap before breakfast. When I got up a few hours later, I was amazed at how awake I felt. I got ready and went down for breakfast, remembering just in time that I COULDN’T have that huge cup of coffee I’d been betting on, because I was in the process of kicking my caffeine habit in preparation for Niko (the wilderness challenge camp I mentioned earlier). I thought about throwing in the towel and suffering through the caffeine headaches next week, but decided headache now was better than headache in the woods and went outside to start my walk to worship practice. I ran into Jesse (the guitar player for worship, who is also the Brazilian ELC student I told you about in my first post) and was given my second gift of the morning (the first, in case you weren’t counting yet, was waking up and not wanting to die on the spot from exhaustion) when he told me that the base worship leader was giving him a ride to class and would have room for me, too. If I hadn’t been holding my breakfast awkwardly in both hands and carrying all my books and laptop for class, I’m pretty sure I would have jumped for joy.

My morning continued with more little gifts…I knew all the worship songs we were leading, so I could relax and even got a chance to lead two of them. Our speaker this week is pregnant (with twins—how exciting!), so she took several short rest breaks during lecture, during which I was able to walk around and wake up a bit—I didn’t nod off once during class. The biggest gift of all, though, came during work duty when my fellow Hospitality worker, Christiane (picture above, right-she's the one who's not me ;)), offered to cover the rest of our day’s work by herself so that I could take a nap. A GLORIOUS, 1.5 hour nap, to be exact. And, no migraine!

So I’ll say it again…God is SO good! He takes care not of ‘those who help themselves,’ as the saying would tell us, but of those who, not having helped themselves, having, in fact, found themselves in horrible positions all of their own making, cry out to Him for help. Yea God!

Praise God with Me:
+For my unexpectedly wonderful Monday (described above)
+For His provision for my teammates, Tamika (picture above, below Christiane & I) & Christiane who heard from supporters that some of their lecture fees will be covered.
+That our outreach airfare cost, which was supposed to come to $1400 a piece, could be as low as $1019 because one of my teammates has a friend, who is a travel agent, working on our behalf.

Pray with Me:
*That God will prepare and equip us for our Outreach to Amsterdam
*That God will provide us housing in Amsterdam (we had a place lined up, but it’s been double-booked)
*That God will continue to draw us closer to Him that we might know and serve Him better
*That God would continue to raise up people to provide lecture funding for my teammates (As a team, we owe over $6,000)
*That God will provide funding for our Outreach fees and airfare (over $17,000 for our whole team, if we get the deal I mentioned above…but it is time sensitive and we are waiting on some passport info on two of our teammates, so please pray for that, too)

My Confession and First Three Days

Ok, so let's be honest right off the bat. I've been slacking on this whole update thing. My only excuse is that I've got more things to do than time here...I started an update halfway through the first week, got busy and got off track before I even started! Ever since, when I sit down to compose something to share with you all, I try to go back to that first week and catch up, and I get overwhelmed...God has just done WAY too much in the 2+ weeks I've been here to catch up on in one sitting! So here's my proposal: if you will forgive me I will do my best to do better from here on out and not fall into any more communicational black holes. Ok? Are we still friends? Good stuff.

This has been 'Midnight (ok, mid-evening) Confessions of a Communicationally Challenged DTS Student' we now continue with your regularly scheduled but as yet postponed update.

Greetings from Richmond! It’s day 3 of my DTS experience, and already I am blown away by all that God is doing. I showed up on Sunday afternoon after a week of frantic packing and organizing and growing, well…dread, of once again, after a 6 year hiatus, stepping back into the ‘new kid’ role I’ve hated since my military childhood. (Disclaimer: I did NOT hate my childhood! I was blessed to experience many different cultures and places and lifestyles because of my military upbringing, and my parents did a great job of keeping our lives as ‘normal’ and pleasant as possible.) I was blessed to hear from several of my friends on the road, who, like Jonathan did for David, helped me to find my strength in God—they encouraged me to trust Him and keep my focus on Him (since my purpose here is not to win the approval of my classmates, but to prepare to serve Him). When I pulled up to the Inn (the name of the girls’ residence house on the YWAM VA base-picture, left) I was still nervous in spite of the encouragement. God graciously stepped in at this point and after asking one of the international students where I should go (it turns out he’s from Brazil (his native language is Portuguese) and is here to learn English…you can imagine how helpful he was, even though he was trying admirably), I took a deep breath and asked the next person I saw. The girl I asked not only spoke English and was a member of my school (there are 3 currently in session), but she was one of my roommates (admittedly not hard when you sleep 8 girls to a room, but more on that in a minute :)) and, as she was just saying goodbye to her family who had just dropped her off, as much in need of a friend as I was. She showed me around the base, helped me find my bed and then registration.

So, about my bed…as I mentioned, I have 7 roommates (God doesn’t do anything halfway—I, who was nervous about meeting people, had 7 new friends within minutes of arriving on base!). I have a top bunk (thanks mostly to my height and the fact that I was the last to arrive :)). My 'downstairs neighbor' as she calls herself, is Min Jung (the picture, top left shows she and three of the other girls-from left, Min Jung, Nina, Macy and Hee Jin) who is from South Korea and is here to learn English at the English Language and Culture School. Ours is the only set of bunk beds in the room that does not have a ladder, so I've had a fun time getting in and out of bed every day. One night, I climbed into bed after lights out (at that point, I was using a seemingly logical climbing route up the end of the bed where there are decorative slats that approximate a ladder...can you guess what's coming? I didn't!). I got to the top of the aforementioned climb and was stepping over the railing to get into my bed when all of a sudden, my right foot was 3/4 of the way down to Min Jung's bunk...the problem was, my left foot was still on top of my mattress! One of the slats holding up my mattress had shifted when I made my bed earlier in the day, and the unsupported mattress was unable to bear the weight of my, um, presence alone. So much for sneaking quietly to bed and not disturbing my roommates! We all had a good laugh, I had some unique bruises, and I changed my method of ascent the next night. Fun times--and what I get, I guess, for being blessed with the bottom bunk my entire college career.

Our bedroom is on the top floor of the Inn, which is the girls’ residence and also the guest housing and dining facility on the YWAM VA base. The Inn is a beautiful and cozy old house on a fairly large lot at the end of Waverly Avenue in the Fulton Hill neighborhood of Richmond. It’s an urban neighborhood, and though we’ve been told not to go walking alone at night, the residents seem friendly and the houses well-kept, though not by any means upper or even middle class. The lot also contains the other buildings that make up the YWAM base—the boys’ house, the studio (a big open room where one of the other schools has classes and we will have debrief every week and the occasional movie night with the ELC classes), the Holly house (which houses some of the staff and has several guest rooms for when people visit campus), a storage building and our soon-to-be opened ropes course.

Well, now it's week 3 instead of day 3, and I've pretty much (knock on wood) mastered the whole top-bunk thing. I've heard my first gunshots (everyone kept talking about how they were keeping them up at night...I guess I've just been way too tired to notice! The ones I heard happened during one of our evening classes, though, and though I've been known to doze, I do stay mostly alert), been on a prayer walk of our neighborhood (it really is beautiful, and the residents, for the most part, are friendly), discovered (ok, was taken to by a classmate, but it was as exciting as a discovery for me) a nearby park where I can escape the bustle of campus and read or pray or just listen, found Walmart & Target (and, of course, STARBUCKS!), attended a Messianic Synagogue, and, I believe, found the church I will worship at while I'm here. I'm learning a lot, experiencing a lot, growing a lot, worshipping (and helping to lead worship for my team), praying and generally loving my time here.

Please keep me and my teammates in prayer. Discipleship Training School, as I've been told several times since arriving here, is our time with God, or rather, His time to work in us and prepare us for what He has for us to do. He is working, and while it's all exciting, a lot of it is challenging, and some is painful. Please pray that God's purposes will be accomplished, that He will give us what we need to get all we can from this time (energy, focus, courage, and funding-4 of my teammates have not yet paid their school fees, and all of us are trusting God for our outreach funds). Thanks for reading, I am thankful for you!