....and it hit me!

I am actually going!
Friday we celebrated the last day of Lecture Phase! It was a long day of hard work starting at 6:30 in the morning, . Food galore and blisters to boot! We had a lot of fun in the Kitchen, with roast lamb, lamb on the spit, roast vegetables, roast chicken, honey glazed carrots, broccoli and cheese sauce among other things, plus a large dessert.
I had an amazing crew, and never at one point was it stressful. though it was sure as heck busy!
After everything was cleaned up, the music started and the dancing began! Couples, groups and line dancing, lots of shouting, laughing, swinging and fun.

Early the next morning we said farewell  the Fiji team and the Rotuma team, it was a whirlwind of goodbyes and tears mixed with excitement and anticipation. After they left everything seemed so quite... even though there where more than 30 people still here.
Over the next 2 days we also said goodbye to the Uganda , Philippines and New Zealand teams.
Now as the only team left on base, we are wrapping things up and getting ready to leave next week ourselves!

All this time that I have thought about the up coming outreach, I have been thinking of how cool it is that I get to go to these countries, but I have never really felt any emotion towards it. Then the other night we where watching the movie Father of Lights, and the part comes where Todd White was in Jerusalem, and we all got buzzy excited!!  Since then, I have got the full range of emotions of what is about to happen... excitement, nerves, fear, joy, wonder and awe.

This will probably be our last post for a while as whilst we are in Turkey we will not really be able to do much communicating. I will stay in contact with my parents and the base if any one really wants to know whats up.

Please pray for Strength and courage for our team along with wisdom, unity, and safety.

SO!! Keep an eye out on this space for the next update on how our crazy trip has gone!

Blessings,
Amberleigh.

A turn in the Tale

My Outreach team!! (keep reading to find out where!)

School Two started with a bang!

During training, I was installed as Kitchen Manager, 

Big job and takes up pretty much all my time, but it is really fun, even though it can be pretty stressful. 

Students from past schools and the previous school joined our ever growing staff team.

Though we had to say good bye to some dear long time staff, we gained fresh new staff, rearing to go with enthusiasm and energy. 

The students arrived and the Lecture phase began, and we had a enjoyable first few weeks where we got to baptize five or so of the amazing students.

Then my focus took a radical turn on one bright morning.....

  The day started out normal enough, I woke up to the February morning and crawled out of bed to join the students for our morning prayer before we had staff meeting. 

 Staff meeting went as normal till our ministry director spoke up:

"We have been contacted by those organizing a YWAM 2015 ANZAC Conference in Turkey, and they asked if we are sending a team  from here to be a part. We have decided to send a team, and I want to know who would be interested in going?

As soon as she said that, I knew that I was to go. 

Seven of us raised our hands to consider going...... by the end of the week, after much prayer and thought, the team was narrowed down to three of us, Brent, Douglas and myself. 

Now all my thought was divided between the Kitchen, and organizing stuff for our team. 

Flight research was done, Travel agents contacted and budgets drawn up the decision was also made to include Israel in the trip...

We are looking at a budget of $15,000 for the three of us, and none of us had money. 

We had a deadline to have the money for flights in by, or they would be getting too expensive for us to manage. We prayed and fretted, and spent hours online trying to find the cheapest flights, but to no avail as we still had no money to book them with, the average cost for all of us would be $9,900.

Though God blessed us with the fact that we all hold Kiwi passports and that for both of the countries, we did not need to get visas, or vaccination shots! Praise the Lord!

The week before the money was due was a good week, we had a huge game of angles and mortals going all week, and it was a lot of fun and I got many amazing surprises and shocks, then.....

 I was doing correspondence in the office when Brent came in, his face was pale and he looked shocked. 

He saw me and came over, " Has Beryl talked to you?" I got a sick feeling in my stomach, 'cause that is not often a good thing... "No, what's up?"  He stood there and blinked for a second, then, "We've just been given $6,000" 

It took a second for me to comprehend what that he just said, then I freaked out, " What?!?!"

"We have been given $6,000 dollars to go to Turkey!" 

"oh my gosh, God, your so good!!"  I was in shock,  I did not know what to do with myself.....

Then Brent called me over to read a Facebook message from a friend of ours, the first part of the message read, " I am wondering how to donate to you guys and I am committing my tithes to helping you out." 

That was the last straw, I stood in the middle of the office crying, and I could not stop saying, "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh... God you're too good!"  I don't know what it was like for the other Staff in the office but I could not wrap my head around it.

So long story short, we got given this money, along with a number of smaller donations, and upon looking for flights, we found some for $6,200!

So all together we  had enough money for both the flights and buy our travel insurance!

We are now only looking for food and accommodation money as well internal transport with in the three countries that we will be in.
New Zealand Turkey and Israel.

Well, on top of all this, life carries on! 

With Kitchen work, student event, the opportunity to teach Bible in Schools for Easter, and all the other amazing things that we get to do here in YWAM, life is full, crazy and God blessed. 

So this is the update, till now, it is the beginning of week 11, here on Lecture phase, with 2 weeks till the Students leave on Outreach, and only three weeks till I leave for Auckland and then off to the Middle East!

I shall keep you all posted as much as I can on this Crazy story!