Home to Seattle

Hey Everyone! I'm home to Seattle! First off I'm sooooooo sorry I haven't updated my blog in so long. I got back to Seattle on the 22nd and it has been crazy every since. Eleya got in a car accident on the 24th. She was hit by a guy who fell asleep at the wheel. She was in ICU for three days but is home safe and sound and I'm sooo thankful that she is safe and at home. I'm also really thankful that I was HERE when it all happened. I can't imagine getting that phone call. She is fine has no broken bones and is doing well. It was a crazy re-entry experience but God's good :)

Over the last three months God has done so much in me and I just wanted to share a few testimonies.

First off... Thailand broke my heart wide open. It wasn't just the pollution, alcoholism, addictions, and poverty that breaks your heart but the apparent lack of respect for humans as masterpieces created by God. I spent most of my time in Thailand (almost 3 weeks) in two red-light districts. One was Nana the other was known as Soi Cowboy. One week our team spent five nights in a row from 9 p.m. to 1-2 a.m. witnessing and sharing with Western customers.Through a survey and conversations we were able to help the men realize the abuse that these girls are going through and the potential danger that the men could be in. It's estimated that one in a hundred women in Thialand are HIV+. However, the ultimate goal of the MSt Project (Men and the Sex Trade, the ministry we worked with) is to get into conversations so that we can share the gospel of Jesus and talk about the Father's love for these men and women in the bars. The biggst thing that I learned in Thialand is that God's love is not limited to the vistims. It's available to any and everyone! These men are in pain just as much as those women are. It was so great we saw a Muslim man saved the first night we went out! Please keep this ministry and the staff members in your prayers. After a truly life changing experience in Thailand we headed to cape Town, South Africa.

South Africa: Our team was a pioneering group and that came with a lot of disunity, harships, and really rough times. South Africa was by far the hardest part of these last six months. I spent the first week and a half in bed with an infection and the next two pretty sick. Although there were struggles God got us through the five weeks there and I'm so thankful for his faithfulness. Our team's primary goal was to build relationships with the church we were working with (Tabernacle of Priase) so that we could partner with them during the world cup that's coming up this summer. Our base in Sydney is eager to send more teams to South Africa but, as always, there is pioneering work that has to be done. We had to learn to die to ourselves every single day. It was hard but our team made it. There were sixteen of us in all. I think what impacted me the most in South Africa was a thirteen-year-old girl named Samone.

I first met Samone at a deteniton centre for girls between the ages of twelve and eighteen. Most of the girls were in the dention centre for alcohol.drug abuse or theft but some were event here for murder. Let me tell you- that's a tough growd to preach to. Thankfully God worked miracles in that place and I was able to connect with this beautiful South African girl who was in the tention centre for druge abuse. She told me parts of her story throughout the day we spent there. She confessed that she knew drugs were wrong but that she'd been told they would help her find her parents. She lives in Cape Town but her parents live in another city entirely and don't have the money to travel to get her home. I don't know how she ended up in Cape Town, but I do know that her heart was broken. She'd accepted Christ while in the dention centre (before we came) but was in desperate need of encouragement and love. Many of the girls spend most of their time bullying her and she had not seen her parents for months. Ellen immediately pops in my head when I think of Samone. Ellen's older then Samone and I can't imagine her being away from my mom for more than a couple of weeks.

Anyways, God laid it on our hearts to go back to the the dention centre after the first visit. Although visiting isn't easy we manged to arrange a visit a couple days before we left Cape Town. Samone and all of hte girls were shcoked when they saw our team come back. they shared with us that people usually don't return. One of the girls, who was a Muslim, gave her heart to hte Lord right here on the spot! As I talked with Samone and gave her a little present that I'd made her she started crying. I held her as she said she wanted her mom over and over again in my ear. I encouraged her wtih Psalms 91 and did my best to speak truth into her life. (sorry this is long! I'm trying to make it short) Anyways, she eventually told me that I was just like a big sister and that hse loved me and was going to miss me. I cried as we left the detention centre. I have no way of contacting her and have no idea where she is. I've been praying for her ever since we left South Africa. Her trial was on January 21st and I hope that she was able to find her way back to her parents. I'm also praying that the stronghold and pressures around her won't suck her down or distract her from God's calling in her life which is to worship him and serve him.

After we said some tearful goodbyes to the church and many friends we'd made we headed back to Sydney. We got to spent a 20 hrs. layover in Dubai, U.A.E. (which was pretty cool :D) before arriving in Sydney. We then headed to Canberra, the capitol, for a conference with the founder of YWAM, Loren and Darlen Cunningham. After a motivating and convicting week our team headed to Tingha. Tingha is an aboriginal community in NSW. It's about an 8 hr. drive from Sydney. We spent a week in Tingha and helped start up a youth centre. The youth centre was booming when we left and we're praying that it'll contunue to minister to that community. In Tingha we did some major spiritual warfare and saw a man get saved and his leg grow partically all in the same 7 hr. prayer meeting! God's good. After Tingha we went to fingal (another aboriginal community) and worked with a church there before retuning to Sydney. Our primary focus was paryer walks and Bible distribution.

We arrived back in Sydney... debriefed... and graduated on February 19th! :) It was a very fun day and our team enjoyed the last few days we got to spent together before we went our different ways. Many of my friends stayed and are either traveling around Australia or pursuing more YWAM opportunities as God leads them. I'm very proud of them and miss them more then I can say. I'm very happy to be home. I have many more testimonies and stories I want to write but I should head to bed. I especially want to write more about South Africa. I saw a lot there and God opened my eyes up and my heart up to things unheard of. I'm so thankful for this lifechanging experience. God is good!

Thank you all for everything. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone and catching up with everyone. God Bless you!!!

-Shanna